Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Resistance Act II
by AuraFighter23
Summary: Dark times are just over the horizon. The emperor and his soldiers are on the move and Team Dawn Breaker is forced into the middle of it all. With new friends and allies, will they have the strength to overcome the encroaching darkness, or will they fall to the emperor's might? Sequel to Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Resistance.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Echoes of the Past and Whispers of the Future

Dark clouds covered the moon, impeding light from reaching the forest below. The wild Hoothoot and Noctowl were strangely silent that night as were the various bug types that called the forest home. The only sound that permeated the night air was the soft whispers of the wind as it rustled through the treetops. While this could be considered a calm and peaceful night, it was strangely eerie. A foreboding tension seemed to grip the entire forest and its inhabitants.

The silence was abruptly broken by harsh and fast panting followed by the sounds of snapping twigs. A light blue blur dashed through the silent forest as if Giratina himself were on their tail. The Pokémon paused in its movement and looked behind it with wide, fearful, yellow eyes before resuming its dash through the forest. The moon peeked out from behind the clouds, sending a pale ray of moonlight that illuminated a large thorn bush with a halo of light. Seeing the bush, the Pokémon dove for it, taking temporary refuge within the brambles.

The Pokémon was a young male Froakie. He tried to curl to make himself less noticeable, ignoring the thorns that dug into his skin. He was covered in bleeding cuts and scratches, many of which were not caused by the thorn bush. The frothy bubble collar that covered the water type's neck seemed to be significantly smaller than the normal amount that a Froakie would have, like a chunk of the bubbles had been torn off. He was still panting heavily and dark circles colored the underside of his eyes, showing his fatigue.

The sound of branches cracking under a significant amount of wait caused the Froakie to freeze. The Froakie listened with bated breath for anymore sounds. At first nothing, then loud steady thumps began to cut through the silence. Heart hammering in his chest, the Froakie covered his mouth in an attempt to stifle his ragged breathing.

Watching through a small gap in the bush, the Froakie waited with bated breath. The footsteps grew louder and louder until they were right beside the bush. The Froakie bit his tongue to keep from shouting when a large purple foot entered his vision. Loud sniffing sounds cut through the air, causing the Froakie's heart to hammer loudly in his chest. The Froakie held his breath, as he stared through the small gap, praying to Arceus that the figure would pass him by.

Just when the burn of lack of oxegen in his lungs was becoming too much, the figure grunted and began to shamble away. When the Froakie couldn't hear the footsteps anymore he let out a gasp. He took a shuddering gulp of air, filling his lungs with precious air.

However, no sooner had he taken in a single gulp of air a loud roar tore through the forest. Before the Froakie could react a large clawed hand tore through the bush and slammed into the Froakie. With a startled and pained cry, the Froakie was flung through the air and smashed into a tree. With a groan, the water type slumped onto the ground, stars dancing in his vision.

"Well, well, well. Thought you could escape, did you?" The stars began to fade from the Froakie's vision, allowing him to see his assailant.

The Pokémon before him was a very large Nidoking. He was covered in a multitude of scars, each of varying sizes, and his most noticeable feature was that his horn was broken. His left eye was sealed shut with a large scar. He was grinning evilly at the small Pokémon.

"No..." the Froakie whispered fearfully. The Nidoking smirked predatorily at the young Pokémon.

"That's right, you can't escape from me."

"J-Just l-leave me alone," the scared water type whimpered.

"Sorry, but no can do." The Nidoking took menacing step forward. "You've angered the emperor, and for that you must pay!" With that, the poison-ground type reared its head back, forming an orb of purplish energy in his maw. With a roar, he released a large purple beam of energy at the small Froakie.

With a yelp, the Froakie dove to the side, causing the hyper beam to tear through the tree and several others behind it. Sending a terrified look at what was left of the tree, the Froakie ran, or jumped, deeper in the forest to attempt to escape the Nidoking.

"You can run, but you can't hide!" the Nidoking yelled, a sinister smile spreading over his face as he made to follow.

"Leave me alone!" the Froakie yelled, throwing a sphere of water over his shoulder at the drill Pokémon.

The Nidoking scoffed at the attack and smashed through the sphere with an almost lazy swing of his arm. Opening his mouth, the Nidoking shot a flurry of poison needles at the fleeing Froakie's back.

The Froakie cried out in pain as the needles sunk into his back before dissipating, leaving the poison energy to sink into the water types body. The bubble frog Pokémon staggered before he collapsed on the ground, only getting a few yards away. The Nidoking scoffed at the Froakie's pathetic display.

"I can't say I expected any better, but part of me hoped that this mission would be entertaining." The drill Pokémon stalked towards the Froakie. He grinned when he saw the Froakie attempting to get to his feet. "Oh? Got some fight left in you, do ya'?"

Grunting in pain, the Froakie struggled to get up off the ground only to cry out and fall to the ground once more. He attempted to drag himself across the forest floor in order to escape, but he was too weak to do even that.

"I guess not," the Nidoking sighed. He kicked the Froakie onto his back, savoring the water types cry of pain. He reached down and gripped the Froakie's throat and lifted him into the air. The Froakie kicked feebly at his captor, but the poison-ground type just scoffed and tightened his hold. The Froakie made a loud gurgling sound as his throat was constricted before he went limp.

"Your story ends here, runt," the Nidoking said. He raised his other arm and curled his fingers into a tight fist. An ominous purple glow took to his fist as poison energy was pumped into his fist. The Froakie's struggles renewed, but he couldn't break the Nidoking's hold.

"This is it," he grinned evilly. "Any last words?"

"Grk," the Froakie choked, struggling to pry the Nidoking's fingers from his throat.

"No?" the Nidoking asked mockingly. "Then DIE!" The Nidoking reared his fist back, his eyes burning with malicious intent. The Froakie closed his eyes, bracing himself for what was to come. The Nidoking grinned at this, but before he could end the Froakie, a shout rang out.

"Aoi, use aura sphere!" The Nidoking only had time to look towards the direction of the voice before he was hit with a blue sphere of energy. He let the Froakie go as he was sent flying across the forest by the surprise attack.

The Froakie fell bonelessly to the ground, releasing a cry of pain when he landed. He tried to open his eyes to look at his saviors, but his vision was blurry. He jolted when he felt a hand touch his side, but he could only see a brownish blob.

"Don't worry, little one," the blob soothed. "We're here to help. Aoi." A fuzzy looking blob of blue appeared next to the brown one. "Use heal pulse."

"Got it," the blue one said. Its form shuffled a bit before a wave of multicolored light at the prone water type.

The light washed over the Froakie and he immediately felt better. The cuts that littered its body began to stop bleeding and close. His bruises began to fade. Even his fatigue began to fade leaving the Froakie feeling well rested. The Froakie couldn't help but close his eyes let out a sigh of relief to which the tan blob chuckled.

"Feelin' better I take it?" The Froakie opened his eyes again, focusing in on his saviors. One of them was a Lucario, who was giving him an almost blank look, though the Froakie could detect a glimmer of concern within its red orbs. The other figure threw the Froakie for a loop.

It didn't look like any Pokémon he had ever seen. It had brown skin though the Froakie could only see its face and arms from the elbow down as the creature seemed to be covered in some kind of fabric. It had long legs that too were covered in a thick durable looking fabric and a pair of arms that had sporadically growing fur poking out of its skin. It had short yet tightly curled dark brown hair on the top of its head. The creature had a masculine look to its face, leading the Froakie to believe the creature was indeed male. Looking at the creature's face face he a thin line of fur rest under his nose and just above his mouth. The creature looked at the Froakie with hazel eyes that were full of concern.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"RAAH!" the Nidoking's shout brought the conversation to a screeching halt. Turning back to the forest, the trio saw the Nidoking stomping towards them, fury blazing in his eyes.

"Hmph. I was wondering when you'd show up," the unknown creature said, unconcerned that the behemoth of a Pokémon was glaring down at them.

"You bastards!" the Nidoking growled. "I won't let a _human_ from interfering with me work!"

 _Human,_ the Froakie thought. _Is that what he is?_ The young water type didn't get a chance to contemplate this more as the Nidoking took this time to charge them.

"Aoi!" the human said.

"Understood!" the Lucario said, stepping forward.

The Lucario stepped forward in a calm manner and face the charging Nidoking. The Froakie's eyes widened in horror as the aura Pokémon stood before the raging Nidoking. He made to shout at the Lucario to be careful, but it wasn't needed. A second before the poison-ground type was upon the Lucario its red eyes flashed blue and the Nidoking found himself floating weightlessly in the air.

"GAH!" the Nidoking roared in outrage, thrashing wildly in the air.

"Disappointing," the Lucario said with an uncaring voice.

"What'd you say to me?" the Nidoking growled only to find himself soaring through the air and into a tree.

With a loud smack, the Nidoking slid off the tree and fell to one knee. He pushed himself to his feet and glared at the stoic fighting-steel type, who had his foot still outstretched from kicking the much larger Pokémon, practically foaming at the mouth with rage. With a roar, he foolishly ran at the Lucario.

"Some Pokémon never learn," the aura Pokémon sighed. He brought his paws together and slowly pulled them apart, a turquoise bone forming in between his paws as he did so. Swinging the bone rapidly before slamming the bone into the Nidoking's jaw, stopping the Pokémon cold.

Spinning the bone, the Lucario spun around and slammed the bone into the Nidoking with enough force to lift the Pokémon off the ground. Before the Nidoking could attempt a counter attack, he was hit several more times all over his body. By the end of the brutal assault, the Nidoking was on his knees, groaning in pain.

"Damn you," he grunted, glaring weakly at the still stoic Lucario.

 _Holy Arceus,_ the Froakie thought, completely in awe over what he just saw. _He beat that Nidoking in a matter of seconds! Just how strong is he?_

"Aoi, finish it. We need to get this Froakie back to the village to treat his wounds!" the human said, lifting the Froakie into his arms.

"Right," the Lucario called back. The Nidoking growled angrily.

"I won't be undermined by-" Whatever the Nidoking was about to say was cut off when the Lucario swung his leg high into the air, flames erupting from his leg, and slammed it down into the drill Pokémon's skull in a vicious ax kick. The Nidoking was slammed into the ground with enough force to crack the ground under him and lost consciousness.

"Good job, Aoi," the human commended, a soft smile playing over his face.

"Hmph, wasn't even hard," the Lucario named Aoi scoffed.

"Let's get out of here and get this little guy some real help." The Froakie looked up at the human holding him and was met with a kind smile. "What's your name, little guy?"

The Froakie moistened his lips. "My name is..."

"STRIDE!"

Said Greninja's eyes snapped open at Bolt's voice. Looking down at the glaring Manectric, Stride gave a sheepish chuckle.

"Sorry, what were you saying, Bolt?" The Manectric rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically.

"Seriously, Stride? Can't you pay attention for once?" Seth scoffed.

"Sorry," the Greninja said, rubbing the back of his head in a sheepish manner. "My mind's been else where."

"Thinking of your _hatchlings_ ," Seth growled. Bolt groaned at this.

"Oh come on, Seth," the Manectric said. "Please don't start this again. It's getting old real fast."

"You're the leader of this team, not theirs," Seth said, ignoring Bolt in favor of glaring at the aloof looking Greninja. "You shouldn't invest so much time on them!"

"And leave a young team to fend for themselves without proper training?" Stride asked. "I think not!"

"Then you should have let the training facilities have them!" Seth persisted. "It's their _job_ to train young recruits! You could have easily handed them over to them!"

"I have my reasons for training them," Stride said, looking up at the ceiling with pensive look.

"Whatever reasons those are they do not take precedence over your own team, or have you forgotten that?" Seth snapped. The ninja Pokémon's eyes snapped towards the Absol who flinched at the look he was given.

"Are you saying that I do not care for the team?" Stride tone was even, but their was a dark undertone that caused both Bolt and Seth to shiver involuntarily.

"That's not what I meant," Seth said. "All I'm saying is that while you are gallivanting with your hatchlings, the rest of us have been at Razed Ridge attempting to keep it from falling into the hands of the emperor!"

"I know what is at stake, Seth," Stride said evenly.

"I don't think you do," Seth challenged. "Razed Ridge is in a critical location. It is literally the dividing line between our two sides. With all of the paths that branch out from Razed Ridge, if the emperor gets his hands on it..."

"Then there's nowhere in Lyore that his forces can't reach," Stride finished. "I _know_ all this, Seth."

"Then why do you insist on...on _fathering_ this team of hatchlings?!"

"My reasons are my own and are none of your concern."

"It is my concern if its impeding your ability to lead this team." The tension became staggering. A cold chill seemed to blow through the room as the two glared icily at the other."

"Are you saying that I'm unfit to lead this team?" Stride asked dangerously.

"No, I'm saying that you should be more concerned over your own team then a group of hatchlings," Seth said, refusing to back down. In a flash, Seth was pinned against the wall by a livid Greninja.

"Don't you _dare_ doubt my commitment to this team," Stride growled. "I made this team from the ground up. I put my blood sweat and tears into this team and I have made it revered among not only the other divisions but the emperor's division."

Seth choked as Stride's webbed hand tightened ever so slightly around the dark type's throat. The Absol's ruby red eyes were wide with fear having only seen Stride this angry when the emperor was involved. Never before in Seth's life had his leader ever expressed such anger towards him. Seth was beginning to regret opening his mouth.

"Stride, enough!" Bolt said, appearing at his side.

Stride glanced down at at the electric type, his eyes burning with anger. Bolt gulped thickly, but held firm. After a few tense second, Stride grunted and dropped the Absol in a heap onto the floor.

"Watch you tongue, Seth, or next time I won't be so forgiving," Stride growled before storming out of the room and into the hall. Bolt glanced at Seth before trotting after the water-dark type, leaving the Absol gulping down air.

"Stride!" Bolt called out, running to catch up to the Greninja's long strides. The ninja Pokémon stopped in the hallway and waited for the Manectric to catch up.

"What do you want, Bolt?" Stride asked tiredly.

"What was that back there?" Bolt questioned. "I know Seth can be annoying, but that was a little over the top."

"I am just tired of him undermining my decisions," Stride said, resuming his walk.

"I understand that, but you didn't have to _attack_ him," Bolt said, running to catch up. "Lately you've changed, Stride. You put on a mask for Team Dawn Breaker, but the rest of us see it. You've become distant, irritable, even forgetful."

Stride made no comment. When Bolt looked up at Stride to gauge his reaction he was met with a stoic visage. Stride kept his eyes forward and refused to meet the discharge Pokémon's gaze.

"Stride...have you been sleeping alright?" Bolt asked. Stride was silent for a while before he sighed in defeat.

"No, I haven't," he said.

"Stride..."

"I know Bolt," Stride interrupted. "but I can't afford to sleep as much as I want."

"Stride, that's not good for you," Bolt scolded. "You need rest in order to function to your best ability!"

"I don't have time, Bolt," Stride sighed. "I have too much on my plate."

"Stride, you need a break." Bolt was practically pleading with Stride at this point. "You can't keep doing this to yourself. You'll burn out at this rate."

"I can't do that," Stride said through gritted teeth. "I have to run Team Surge, converse with all the other teams that are stationed at Razed Ridge, confer with the tribunal, not to mention check up on Team Dawn Breaker..."

"Stride! You can't do this! You are running yourself ragged with all this!"

"What choice do I have?!" Stride shouted. "If I don't do these things, then who will."

"Stride, when you first formed the team you said that, while you were the leader, we all had equal standing in the team," Bolt said softly, causing the Greninja to pause. "We're here to help each other. You can designate those things to us and we can do them while you rest."

"I can't ask you all to do that," Stride said.

"Stride, that's the point of having a team," Bolt said. "We're here to help you. Seth, while and asshole, can easily see to the meetings with the tribunal and the other teams, and any one of us can check up on Team Dawn Breaker."

"No, Team Dawn Breaker is my responsibility," Stride said adamantly. Bolt gave him a confused look.

"But why?" Bolt questioned. "I understand that you want to check up on them, but why do you insist on shadowing them on missions? You said it yourself, they're ready to do missions by themselves, which they _have_ done, by the way."

"You don't understand," Stride said.

"Then help me to understand. We're a team, there shouldn't be any secrets between us." Stride remained silent. "Is it...does this have something to do with the silver soul?" Bolt guessed to which Stride, again, did not answer. "It does doesn't it?"

Stride sighed. "I...I'm not sure."

"Stride, you said that Phoebe didn't sense the silver soul in either of them, so why are you focusing so much on them?"

"Those two...they're special, I know it." Stride said.

"Well sure they are," Bolt said. "I mean Furno posses the Ikari Flame and Zero can supposedly use aura sphere so of course they're special..."

"That's not what I meant," Stride interjected.

"Then what do you mean?" When Stride didn't answer right away, Bolt frowned. "Stride...please tell me."

"...I...I feel as if they are some how connected to the silver soul," Stride finally said.

"How do you figure?"

"I'm not sure really." Stride confessed. "It's...something Angela mentioned in passing."

"You mean what she said when we first found those two in Shrouded Forest? That something of _great importance_ would be found there?"

"Exactly and if what she said was correct, then one of them, or maybe both of them, will have a great impact on things to come."

"Is that why you are so invested in those two?"

"Partially..."

"Partially?"

Stride turned away from his teammate and looked off into the distance. His eyes were glazed and unfocused, as if his mind were else where. "There is something about Zero that..." he trailed off.

"What do you mean?" Bolt asked curiously. "What about Zero?"

"I...I owe him."

"How do you owe him? I've never met him before then, have you?" Bolt's eyes widened. "You know him from the past, don't you?! You knew him before he lost his memory and you feel obligated to help him!"

"No, that's not it," the Greninja said in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Then what is it?" Bolt all bu demanded, tired of Stride's cryptic responses.

"I don't owe him specifically, but I do owe him in away." A shadow seemingly flashed over the Greninja's face and he whispered, "I owe him for what I did to his people."

Bolt cocked his head to the side. "His people?" he questioned. "Don't you mean his species?"

"..."

"Okay, well what did you do?" Bolt asked when Stride did not respond. "Did you have to eliminate a bunch of Riolu on a mission?"

"..."

"No, that can't have been it," Bolt continued. "Riolu are extremely hard to come by these days. I would have know if there was a cell of Riolu working for the emperor."

"..."

"Oh, is it because of you spat with Orion?"

"..."

"That would make sense. You probably feel as if you are keeping Zero from finding out about what is basically his heritage."

"..." Stride still did not answer though he looked to becoming increasingly annoyed.

"I mean I would be upset if someone kept me from other Manectric," Bolt continued, not noticing his leaders increasing frustration. "I mean I could see how you want to make it up to him by investing so much time in his trai-"

"Bolt!" Said Manectric visibly started at Stride's shout. The ninja Pokémon sighed tiredly before facing his teammate. "Look, I understand that you want to help, but things are a lot more complicated then you realize."

"But they don't have to be. Stride, please, let us help you," Bolt pleaded. "We are all just as capable as you, so let us help." When Stride looked like he still wanted to argue, Bolt added, "You don't have to tell us your reasons, but trust us enough to follow your instructions."

"It's not that I don't trust you..."

"Then what is it?!" Bolt shouted. "We're a team. We're supposed to rely one one another." Bolt took on a softer tone. "So rely on us. Please."

Stride still looked conflicted. He had his reasons for doing what he was doing, yet he still reluctant to share his thoughts with his team. He looked down at the Manectric who was looking back with pleading eyes. Stride sighed loudly before smiling softly at the electric type.

"Alright," Stride relented. "I'll take a back seat just this one time."

Bolt broke out in a grin that was practically glowing with his relief. "You won't regret it!"

"Yeah, yeah," Stride said as he mad his way back to their rooms. "Make sure Seth doesn't run the team into the ground." He paused. "And make sure he isn't the one checking in on Team Dawn Breaker."

"Got it, boss!" Bolt called.

Stride chuckled and continued on his way. Part of him was still reluctant to entrust such matters to someone else, but he knew he had to. If he couldn't trust his team with such matters than he couldn't trust anyone.

He frowned when he though back to his little trip to the past that he was having a few minutes earlier. He remembered those events as well as the events that would follow clearly. The image of all the destruction he caused engraved forever in his mind. He would never forget and he would never forgive himself.

"But what I am doing is a good start," Stride said to himself. "I promise you, Zero, I will make it right!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Change and a Challenge

Much had changed for Team Dawn Breaker after their assistance with the recapture of Glaucuous Town. Fueled by their success against a captain level enemy, they began to take higher ranked missions, each with varying levels of success. While they completed each mission, as one would expect, the higher the mission ranking, the harder it was to complete. So far, the young team had not dared to take any A ranked missions though they did take C ranked and the occasional B rank.

Not only that, but the team had also become something of a legend among the trainees and some of the younger teams. Never before had a team in the Latios Division forsaken the normal channels of the training program and formed a team with such a level of success as Team Dawn Breaker. Even among the older members of the Latios Division were impressed by the young team's performance.

However, many wrote off the team's success as Stride assisting them during missions. It was a well known fact that Stride had taken on a new team and many thought that Stride was doing the work for them in order to hide the fact that they were as good as an average rookie team. These claims were generally ignored by most either knew that Stride would never do such a thing or they had seen Team Dawn Breaker in action.

It was a common sight to see the team working with either Monty or another resistance member in the training center. They would enter the training center almost daily and would constantly push themselves to their limits each time. They could be considered masochists with all the training they did and with the recent induction of the once wild Sandshrew, their efforts to not only improve themselves but also their overall teamwork.

While they were almost constantly in the training facility, that did not mean they did not take time to relax. They would make it a habit to try and meet up with the friends that they have made in the division. If one were to encounter the team, they would be surprised of how different they seemed from when they were training to when they were relaxing.

Zero acted basically the same as he was when training and when not. He had always been withdrawn and borderline cold around strangers, though he had begun to open up more. It was only when he was with his team that he truly opened up. If one were to see him, their jaws would most likely hit the ground to see a laughing and smiling Riolu as opposed to the standoffish one that would walk around.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Furno, who had been boisterous, had toned down significantly. He acted much more mature when faced with new or frustrating things, unlike before when he would act naive or childish. That is not to say that he was not still excitable at times when he was extremely happy, he just didn't wear his heart on his sleeve so to speak.

Quill was still...Quill. He enjoyed telling jokes and messing with the team -mostly Furno. He was laid back by nature, though he when he trained, he became a monster. The young Quilladin was rather ruthless when fighting his opponent, notorious for holding nothing back in fights, even when sparring. However, his laid back attitude caused him to become lazy when it comes to training, forcing Zero to give him 'incentive' to get him moving, much to the Quilladin's chagrin. Oddly enough, however, he loved getting into fights.

Dusty was an odd case. He acted shy around most Pokémon and rarely spoke, even around his team. When he did speak, his voice sounded almost child-like and innocent. However, much like Quill, the Sandshrew's personality would drastically change in battle. His eyes would become sharp and cold. His posture became rigid and fierce. He was not a 'heavy-hitter' like Quill, but he was powerful. He had an analytical eye when it came to battling. He would either wait and attack when his opponent was unprepared or would draw his opponent into a trap. This made him an invaluable member of the team.

The team worked quite well together despite their evident personality differences. Because of Dusty's natural analytical mind, he melded in almost perfectly with the team. However, they still ran into problems every once in a while.

"Quill! You almost hit me!" Furno shouted angrily.

"Sorry about that!" the Quilladin shouted back.

"Seriously, that's like the second time in the last five minutes! Are you _trying_ to hit me?!"

"Of course not!" Furno glared at his teammate and noticed the mischievous glint in his eye.

"You are doing it on purpose!" he shouted angrily.

"Furno, I would _never_ do such a thing," Quill said dramatically, clutching his heart as if he were hurt by Furno's words, though he could not hide the smile that was creeping over his face.

Infuriated by the Quilladin's constant joking, Furno decided to get even. The moment the grass-fighting turned around, Furno shot a small bout of flames at him, igniting his tail.

"WAAH!" Quill yelped in pain. Everyone in the training center found their attention drawn to the Quilladin as he danced around with his tail on fire. He finally managed to put out the flames and glared at the innocently whistling Chimchar. "What the hell, Furno?!"

"Oh, _sorry_ ," Furno said sarcastically. "I was aiming for something else."

Quill growled in anger and fired a barrage of glowing needles at the fire type, making him yelp in surprise.

"What the hell, Quill?!"

" _Sorry_ , I was aiming for something else," Quill mocked.

Furno growled and lunged at the spiny armor Pokémon with a thunder punch. Giving his own undignified yelp, Quill jumped to the side to avoid the attack and lost his balance. With a small _thud_ the Quilladin fell onto his back, his limbs outstretched and flailing like a Squirtle.

Furno fell over in laughter, clutching his sides as he watched the grass-fighting type struggle. Quill finally managed to get to his feet, his face red in a mixture of embarrassment and anger. Glaring at the still laughing Chimchar, he released a battle cry and pounced on the unsuspecting fire type.

The two began rolled on the floor, scratching and punching each other, all the while spouting insults at the other without any real heat in their voices. Most of the center's occupants were watching the fighting duo with a mixture of annoyance and mirth on their faces. One Pokémon in particular could only watch with a sigh.

"Don't you two ever quit?" Zero asked more to himself than to the quarreling duo.

"He started it!" both shouted at the same time, causing them to glare at the other and resume their fighting.

Zero pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "What did I do to deserve this?"

"I am sure you did nothing to warrant the actions of those two," Dusty said as he walked up to Zero.

"Thanks, Dusty," he said half-heartedly, trying hard to not roll his eyes.

"You are welcome," the Sandshrew said, not understanding the Riolu's sarcasm.

Zero just sighed. "Dusty, you remember our talk about sarcasm, right?"

The Sandshrew gave his leader a confused look before a glimmer of understanding flashed in his eyes. "I apologize, Zero. I did not realize you were speaking in sarcasm," he apologized.

"You don't need to apologize," Zero said, barley suppressing a sigh.

Dusty, while a lot more intelligent then he was when they first found him in the wild, did not understand sarcasm or jokes very well. He understand the mechanics of joking, but he was unable to discern when they were directed towards him. He was a...very literal Pokémon. At first, this made him a target of Quill's joking, but this soon stopped when Quill failed to get more than a curious glance from the Sandshrew.

Speaking of Quill, Zero turned back to the duo that were still rolling around on the floor. Quill had certainly proved himself to the team. When he first joined, Zero though he was nothing but an overzealous fanboy who sought to get in the good graces of Team Surge and while he was, he proved that that wasn't all he was.

Quill, while a bit of a joker, was reliable and knew when it was time to be serious. He pulled more than his own weight on the team having had to save the others' hides at times. He further surprised Zero by stating that he wanted to stay part of their team, not Team Surge's. He was committed to Team Dawn Breaker and he was had become a valued member and a good friend.

Furno too had gone through a rather drastic change. The timid and slightly insecure fire chimp had become a strong and confident member of Team Dawn Breaker. He no longer questioned what he was doing and had become confident in his abilities. He still had moments of childishness, as could be seen as he fought almost constantly with Quill, but he was a kid. Heck, they all were kids. Zero looked turned his attention to himself and how he had changed.

Zero, when he had been found, spoke the bare minimum. He was confused about what was going on around him and didn't know how he should act as a Pokémon. He was a human trapped in a Pokémon's body and despite knowing nothing of his past, he still felt out of place in the world. He felt as if he had no place in this world, but now...

Now he was more self-assured in who or what he was. He opened up more and though he was still wary around new faces he became confident in how he acted. Being called a Riolu and acting like one had made him accepting of his predicament. There were even times that he forgot that he was human and the scary part was that he was okay with that.

He felt comfortable as a Riolu. Maybe because it was all he knew, but regardless of why, he was okay with how he was. He liked this life. He liked the friends that he had made since waking up in that forest. He didn't know what kind of life he had before he turned into a Pokémon, but he found himself caring less and less about that. He was Zero, the leader of Team Dawn Breaker and that was all that mattered.

The former human looked down at his quarreling teammates and couldn't help but smile. This was the life he had now. He lived for his team, the Pokémon that had become family to him. A family that he was willing to lay down his life for and it wasn't just them. Brooke, Ducky, Zeke, Glenda, Team Tempest, Team Surge -though maybe not Seth-, they were all important to him. Their beliefs, their desire to end the emperor's tyranny, they became his desires and he would fight for them to his last breath.

"I see your training session has been productive." Zero turned and saw Bolt padding towards him.

"Bolt!" Furno exclaimed. He quickly pushed Quill away and got to his feet. The Quilladin grumbled angrily, but Furno ignored him. "What are you doing here?"

"What? Can't I come and see how Stride's hatchlings are doing?" the Manectric teased.

"No, it's not that," Furno quickly pacified. "It's just that Stride normally comes to check up on us."

"Yes, well Stride's been feeling stressed out as of late, so he's taking a break for a while."

"Oh," Furno said, slightly depressedly.

"What, you don't like me?" Bolt said, looking away as if he was hurt.

"What? No! I'm just- We're just-"

"Furno, he's messing with you," Zero interrupted, barely suppressing a sigh.

"Oh..." A bright blush colored the Chimchar's. "I knew that!"

"Sure you did," Quill muttered under his breath, though Furno heard him.

"Shut up, Quill!"

"Was that a joke, Zero?" Dusty asked in a low whisper, causing the Riolu to sigh loudly.

"I see your team is as sharp as ever," Bolt commented, physically straining not to laugh. "Anyway, I came here to see how you four are doing with your training, but I see you've got it handled." Bolt gave them a knowing look.

"No, no! We're still training! We're just...taking a break!" Furno said unconvincingly.

" _Right_ ," Bolt said, clearly not believing the fire type's words. "So how are you four doing?"

"We're okay," Zero answered. "A little tired from training and missions."

"You know your allowed to take a break every once in a while, right?" Bolt asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We know, but we want to get stronger."

"Ah, come on, Zero!" Quill swung his arm around the Riolu's shoulder. "We've already become a lot stronger. We can afford a break. I mean, we've aced every mission we've taken since the team was created! I think we deserve a break."

"I don't know..." Zero said uncertainly.

"He does have a point, Zero," Furno added. "We _have_ been working really hard. One little break won't stop us from completing missions."

"Yeah, listen to Furno," Quill added. "At the rate we've been working, we could take a whole month off and we'd still rock!"

"Hmm," Zero said noncommittally.

"Come on, _please_ , Zero!" Quill pleaded. "Please?"

"I still don't know," Zero said. "What do you think, Bolt?"

"Well like I said, there's nothing wrong with taking a break. Heck, I just told you Stride was taking a break," Bolt sagely. "Though you shouldn't become too overconfident in your abilities. There's always room for improvement."

"We know, but come one, we're amazing!" Quill bragged.

"But there will always be someone stronger," Bolt pointed out.

"Yeah, but that's why we're a team," Furno said earnestly. "We work together so we _can_ beat foes like that."

"Besides, we've taken down a captain and a legendary!" Quill boasted. "We can handle anything!"

Zero didn't say anything, though did smile marginally at his teammates. They had come far since joining the resistance and he was confident in their ability to complete missions. They have been faced with strong foes in the past, but they have always been able to pull through with their combined strength.

"Hmm," Bolt hummed, an unreadable expression on his face. "So you're confident in your abilities."

"Of course we are!" Quill exclaimed, puffing out his chest.

"Yeah, if we work together there's nothing we can't do!" Furno added, determination burning in his eyes.

"Furno...that was seriously cliché," Quill said.

"Shut up!" Furno snapped.

"Guys," Zero chided.

"Well, if you're so confident, I have a mission just for you four," Bolt said. Team Dawn Breaker couldn't help but gulp at the sly smirk that spread over the discharge Pokémon's face.

-Resistance-

Bolt led the team of four to the mission board. Swiftly maneuvering through the mass of Pokémon he tore a mission off the board and padded back to the quartet with the paper in his mouth. He placed the mission in front of them and smirked at them.

"Well here it is," the electric type said almost evilly. "If you four think you're strong enough, then this mission is for you."

Tentatively, Zero reached down and took the paper, casting an uncertain glance at the still smirking Manectric. Quill peered over Zero's shoulder and read over the mission.

"A B-rank? That's it?" he questioned disbelievingly and a little disappointed.

"No offense, Bolt, but we've done B-ranks before," Zero said.

"Yeah, and we handled them with no problem," Quill boasted, earning nods from the rest of the team sans Dusty.

"Oh? But this is a special mission," Bolt said cryptically.

"Special how?" Furno questioned.

"This one is much more difficult than most B-rank missions. Several other teams have attempted to complete this mission and all of them have failed," Bolt said with a slight sinister edge in his voice.

"Seriously, all them?!" Quill asked, snatching the mission from Zero's paws and reading it at a furious pace.

"All of them," Bolt confirmed.

"It's says that there is a thief hiding in a place called Malignant Meadow," Quill read, still scanning over the paper.

"Malignant Meadow," Dust repeated. "That name is a paradox."

"Yes, it used to be called Miraculous Meadow for its variety of exotic flora, but it became twisted and deadly when it became a mystery dungeon," Bolt explained grimly.

"What kind of Pokémon is the thief?" Furno asked.

"It says that its a Throh," Quill answered after skimming over the sheet.

"A fighting type," Dusty murmured. "We have no type advantage over such a foe."

"That doesn't matter," Quill said determinedly. "We didn't have a type advantage against Spikefang and we still won!"

"Yes but he severely underestimated you three," Dusty pointed out. "If we are to go against an enemy who has been dealing with resistance members on a continuous basis, he will most likely not give us such a luxury."

"Whatever," Quill scoffed. "We'll take the mission and we'll complete it like all the others."

"I do believe that that decision is not yours to make. Zero is the leader, not you," Dusty said, a glimmer of annoyance flashing in his eyes.

Quill spluttered in shock and anger. "I never- I never said I was the leader!" he said furiously.

"Then why are you trying to make decisions for the team?" the Sandshrew challenged.

Quill's face became bright red with anger. He opened his mouth to shout at the mouse Pokémon when Zero cut him off.

"Quill! Stand down!" Quill turned his glare towards Zero who returned it with one of his own. The two stared the other down for several tense seconds before Quill turned away with a huff.

Zero suppressed a sigh of frustration. Arguments like that have been frustratingly frequent between the two Pokémon. At first it had been just Quill teasing the ground type, but when he didn't respond in a way that Quill liked, things began to get ugly. It almost always started the same way: Quill would say something as a joke, Dusty -being the literal individual that he is- pointed out how whatever Quill said contradicts a proven fact, and Quill snaps at Dusty. It was a never ending cycle and it was getting on Zero's nerves.

He really couldn't fault Dusty for his part in these arguments as it was in his nature to be literal, but Quill's part in all this was surprising. Sure, Quill argued with Furno a lot, but with them it was in an almost brotherly manner. When it was with Dusty, it was almost personal and, if his emotion sensing was working properly, Quill was angry at the little ground mouse whenever they fought and Zero didn't know why. He wanted to ask, but at the same time, he didn't want to overstep his boundaries.

Bolt gave the team a confused look. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, we're good," Zero said, casting a hard look towards Quill. "We'll take the mission."

"Oh? Are you sure?" Bolt asked almost challengingly.

"We're sure," Zero nodded before glancing at the Sandshrew next to him. Seeing his slightly worried expression on his face, Zero said, "Don't worry, we'll be careful."

Dusty nodded half-heartedly at Zero's claim, clearly still skeptical over the entire mission. Zero ignored this in favor of staring determinedly Manectric. The two resistance members stared each other, locked in a battle of wills. Finally, Bolt cracked a crooked grin, showing off his sharp teeth.

"Well I guess it's decided then." Bolt turned and began to walk away. Right as he was about to turn the corner, he glanced back at the team and smirked evilly at the team.

"I do hope you four come back alright. The last team barely made it back in one piece." With that, the discharge Pokémon slipped around the corner, leaving the quartet alone with their musings.

"Well that was ominous," Furno laughed nervously.

"He was just trying to scare us," Quill said with a scoff.

"He sounded serious," Furno said, slightly anxious.

"He was being serious," a Flygon said, coming to stand next to the team.

"What do you mean?" Zero asked.

"That mission has sent many teams to Dr. Kuren in just under a week," the Flygon explained.

"Seriously, it's that bad?!" Furno cried in disbelief.

"If the mission is that difficult, why not raise the mission's ranking?" Dust asked.

"It's not that simple," the Flygon said with a shake of its head. "You see, two things are taken into account when assigning a mission's rank: difficulty and the amount that the client is willing to pay. Each mission has a minimum poké requirement so if a client can't afford the payment for a higher ranking mission they have to settle for a lower one."

"But that doesn't make since," Zero commented, a frown marring his face. "Isn't that dangerous for resistance teams? I mean, if a client can only afford a C-rank mission, but in reality the mission is A-rank, that could put the team completing the mission at risk!"

"That is true, but when the client gives the parameters for the mission it is determined if the mission is truly that rank. If the mission proves to be more difficult than the mission's ranking then a warning is put on the mission. However, there are instances where the client lies about the parameters in order to get someone to do the mission quicker, but those are isolated incidences."

"That's not very reassuring," Furno grumbled worriedly.

"Hey, the system's not perfect, but it's all we got," the Flygon said with a nonchalant shrug. "Anyway, if you're really serious about taking that mission, I wish you guys good luck." Nodding his head towards the group, the dragon-ground type flew off.

"Well I feel _so_ much better about this," Furno said sarcastically.

"That is good, but we should still remain vigilant," Dusty said.

"He was being sarcastic," Quill said waspishly.

"Quill," Zero warned, causing the Quilladin to huff. Zero sighed at his teammates attitude before addressing the fire type. "We'll be fine, Furno. Remember, we've fought strong enemies before. This will be no different."

"R-Right." Furno's expression hardened into one of determination. "Right!" he said with more certainty. "We can do this, together!"

"...Still cliché," Quill mumbled.

"Hey!" Furno shouted indigently. Quill laughed loudly at this and even Zero chuckled lightly. Eventually, even Furno began to laugh and soon, the entire team -sans one- was laughing mirthfully.

"I don't understand. Was that a joke?" Dusty asked confusedly. The trio looked at each other before all three of them doubled over in laughter, further confusing the mouse Pokémon. "What? What did I say?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Malignant Meadow

Team Dawn Breaker awoke bright and early the next morning and geared up for their next mission. Despite the confidence of the majority of the four Pokémon team, they took Bolt's words to heart, they stuffed their pack full of berries, orbs, and seeds in preparation for what could be their greatest challenge. Once they had everything that needed, Quill slung the pack over his shoulder, only slightly encumbered by its weight, and the team set out.

Looking over their map, they found that Malignant Meadow was actually fairly close to the base itself, only a few hours' walk northwards through a the surrounding forest. With that in mind, the quartet hurried along hoping to get to the dungeon and complete their mission before dark.

"I'm so pumped for this," Quill babbled excitedly. "I mean, this...this is our moment to really set ourselves above the rest."

"Yeah, we'll show them just how good Team Dawn Breaker is!" Furno agreed with just as much excitement.

"Aren't you two worried about this mission?" Zero asked. "After everything everyone's said..."

"Zero, lighten up," Quill said. "They're just trying to psyche us out. Besides, even if the mission's as difficult as they say, we can handle it!"

"We have beaten a captain from the emperor's army," Furno pointed out in a partially arrogant tone.

"Yeah, but he was also supposedly the weakest of them," Zero countered.

"So what? A captain's a captain!" Quill said nonchalantly. "If we could handle him, then we can handle this mission."

"Even so, we should not underestimate our opponent," Dusty added. "We are unsure of our enemy's level of power and none of us carry a typing advantage against him."

"So what?" Quill sneered. "None of us had a typing advantage against Spikefang, but we still toasted him!"

"If I recall, you three were injured quite substantially and only beat him due to the appearance of Zero's aura sphere," Dust pointed out dryly. "That and, from what I gathered, Spikefang severely underestimated you three. As our current target has dealt with multiple other teams, it is unlikely that he will give us such a courtesy."

"Then we'll just have to beat him the old fashioned way." Quill flexed rather dramatically. "With sheer power!"

"All the power in the world is meaningless without a good plan to follow," Dusty argued.

This started another argument between the Quilladin and Sandshrew, once more with Quill being the aggressor and Dusty responding calmly, most likely not even aware that they were having anything other than a conversation. Zero and Furno could only sigh at the duo as they all continued to walk.

"Why are they always fighting like this?" Furno asked.

"I really don't know," Zero confessed. "Quill's normally so laid back, but it's like every time Dusty even speaks, he has to argue."

"Yeah, it does seem that way," Furno said with a contemplative frown on his face. "Maybe you should talk to him about that."

"Huh? Why me?" Furno deadpanned.

"Because you're the leader." Zero sighed.

"But it's his business..."

"Well it's becoming all of our business since it's interfering with our teamwork," Furno said.

Zero sighed in defeat. He knew that it was his job to make sure that the team was functioning efficiently and whatever grudge Quill had against the Sandshrew was interfering with the team's dynamics. Even so, the former human was still hesitant over approaching the Quilladin. He was still getting used to being in charge and did not want to overstep his boundaries with the grass-fighting type.

Things were much easier when it was only him and Furno made up the team.

Furno seemed to notice his friend and leader's strife and decided to steer their conversation in another direction. "So have you made any progress with aura sphere yet?"

Zero looked up and immediately took note of his friend's attempt to change topics. He allowed a small, grateful smile to encompass his face before he frowned in thought.

"Not really," he said in a slightly depressed tone. "Every time I try..." He held out his paw and begins to push energy towards it. A small blue orb began to form in his paw and swell in size. The orb then started to flicker before dissipating completely. "that happens."

"You'll get it," Furno said reassuringly.

"At the moment, it's unlikely. I have no idea how to go about learning this technique," Zero said. "It's not a move that Riolu should be able to use and as such, Monty doesn't know how to teach it to me. All he could tell me was to channel my own energy and try and form it into a sphere."

"Isn't that what an aura sphere is?" Furno questioned.

"Yeah, but maintaining the sphere long enough to launch it is another thing," Zero explained. "Unlike with vacuum wave, where I just unleash a wave of raw fighting type energy, aura sphere needs a lot more control so it doesn't explode or fade before it actually hits something."

"Didn't Orion say that Lucario pull aura from the air to form their aura spheres?" Furno asked. He immediately regretted asking when he noticed the dark look that flashed over the Riolu's face.

"I frankly don't care what he said," Zero spat venomously.

Furno sighed. Even a Deino would be able to see that Zero was still angry over the entire situation with Orion. Not that Furno could blame him after all, the Lucario had taught him a move that could not only kill him if he did something wrong, but also shorten his lifespan the more times he used it. Even so...

"Zero, I know you're still mad over what Orion did-" Zero scoffed at that. "but that doesn't mean you should ignore what he said. Aura sphere isn't a move that can kill you so you might as well follow his advice in this instance."

"Hmph. Even if I did want to follow his advice, I have no idea of how to draw aura out of the air," Zero said with a huff.

"You could ask him-"

"No way!"

"Okay, okay!" Furno said quickly, raising his hands in surrender. "I'm just suggesting it since we don't know of any other Lucario that can help you."

"If I have to ask him then I'd rather not learn aura sphere at all," Zero huffed slightly childishly.

"Fine, fine. Though aura sphere is a powerful move and it allowed us to beat Spikefang..." Furno tempted.

"No." Furno sighed when he heard the tone of finality in Zero's voice.

"Alright. Can't blame a guy for trying," Furno sighed in defeat.

"Hmm," Zero hummed noncommittally.

The two fell in a slightly awkward silence fell over the duo, the only sounds being the from the still arguing duo.

"Seriously, are they still at it?" Furno asked in a rather obvious attempt to alleviate some of the tension between the two of them.

"Yeah," Zero murmured dully, clearly not really hearing Furno.

Furno wanted to hit himself. He should have known that Zero would react this way. After knowing Zero for a few months, Furno liked to say that he really knew his friend. Zero's a rather introverted indvidual when it came to meeting new people and even with those that he had met. Furno knew this was because Zero guarded his trust like a Meowth guards a coin and when he decides to trust someone, he would willing give them the fur off his back.

Genrally Zero was always the calm and thoughtful member of their team -as a leader should be. He was typically slow to anger as not many things really got to him. However, it was rather evident that if one were to break that trust, all bets were off. Since Orion broke his trust, Zero had become rather hostile when the Lucario was brought up. The mere utterance of the Lucario's name would cause the Riolu to become annoyed angry, sometimes to the point where he would lose control and actually emanate that emotion and scare whoever is around him.

Furno knew Zero's anger was understandable, but at the same time he wished Zero would just let it go, but he knew the Riolu was much to stubborn to do that. The fire type knew that the Riolu was only hurting himself by refusing to let this grudge go, but he also knew how much trust meant to Zero, it's why he decided to tell both Quill and Dusty that he was human, but he still wished that Zero would get over his own stubbornness to ask for help. Aura sphere would be a great addition to the emanation Pokémon moveset, but Furno knew that Zero needed time to get over his grudge and even then, he honestly doubted that Stride would let the aura Pokémon anywhere near the former human.

"Enough of this," Zero grumbled, snapping Furno out of his musings. He turned back to his friend and saw him glaring at Dusty and Quill. "You two, enough!"

Both Quill and Dusty jumped in surprise having forgotten that there were two others with them. The both gave Zero rather sheepish looks, though Quill's face still held anger.

"He started-" Zero cut the Quilladin off before he could even finish.

"Well I'm ending it. There is no use arguing over what may or may not happen. All we can do is take things step by step and cross whatever obstacle lays before us when we get to them," Zero said sagely.

"You are correct. I apologize for my actions," Dusty said, bowing his head in submission.

Quill still looked defiant, if the glare he directed towards the bowing Sandshrew, but kept his mouth shut. Zero sighed seeing the look on the spiny armor Pokémon's face, but couldn't afford to address it at the moment. He had decided that he would talk to Quill about whatever strife he had with their newest member upon their return, but for now they had a mission to complete.

"Anyway, we don't have time to argue anyway. We're here."

Turning around, the other three saw that before them stood a large opening in the woods that was framed by two trees that bent towards the other much like a gate. Looking past the trees they were met with almost complete blackness. Whatever sunlight that breached through the treeline seemed to be swallowed up by an impenetrable darkness. An eerie chill blew out of the opening, causing the entire team to shiver involuntarily.

"This is Malignant Meadow?" Furno asked slightly worriedly.

"I can see how it earned its name," Dusty commented blankly. Despite his blank look, Zero could feel nervousness begin to eat at him.

"Wh-Whatever!" Quill stepped forward defiantly. "It's just a mystery dungeon. It's nothing we can't handle!"

"R-Right," Furno agreed, allowing some of his previous confidence to bleed into his voice.

"Let's get this done," Zero said, earning nods form his team. Without another word, Team Dawn Breaker entered Malignant Meadow.

-Resistance-

 **Malignant Meadow B1**

The moment the team stepped into the dungeon the eerie chill became a full blown miasma of anguish and sinister intent. What once was a beautiful meadow was a twisted bastardization of its previous self. The grass was a very dark green almost black and seemed rotted and dead. The trees grew tightly with others, leaving no gaps between them as the lined the 'hallways' of the dungeon. The bark was a dull, poisonous purple and the branches were all twisted and bare. There were flowers growing in sporadic pods here in there, but they did not hold the same beauty as most. They were all pitch black in color and drooped down as if dying. They all resembled roses by design, but none looked like the actual thing.

The air was practically suffocating. The atmosphere was thick with malice and negative intention. The quartet couldn't help but shiver at the dark feelings that permeated the dungeon. Zero was particularly effected by this, as he was highly sensitive to such feelings, and physically stumbled when he was assaulted by this heavy feelings.

"Zero!" Furno exclaimed, seeing his friend stumble. He rushed to his side and upon gripping his arm he noted how clammy he felt, despite his fur. "Are you okay."

"Y-Yeah," he said weakly. He quickly shook his head to attempt to alleviate the throbbing of his brain. "It just...caught me off guard. This feeling."

"I know what you mean. It feels like the fur on the back of my neck is prickling constantly," Furno said, allowing his own unease to creep into his voice.

"Well we can't let this dungeon get to us!" Quill said loudly. "We have to keep going!"

Despite his current loud, boisterous disposition, Zero could see a thin line of sweat dripping down his face. The dungeon was clearly getting to him, but he was putting on a brave face.

"We should keep our voices down," Dusty said, looking around anxiously. "We do not want to alert the wild Pokémon to our location."

"I know that!" Quill snapped.

"Guys," Zero said with a forceful voice, stopping the ensuing argument. He took a deep breath to fully steady his nerves. "Let's get going. The sooner we get out of this dungeon the better. How large is this dungeon?"

"This dungeon has thirteen floors in total," Dusty recited.

"Great," the Riolu muttered. "Let's get this done."

The team nodded in agreement and set off down one of the paths.

-Resistance-

The dungeon twisted and turned, like mystery dungeons do, though it was considerably larger than others the team has traversed in the past. The heard the chittering and caws of random bird and bug type Pokémon echoing through the dungeon gave it an increased sense of foreboding. The dark feelings that the team first felt upon entering the dungeon was still present and, if anything, increased the further the team ventured.

They had to double back on several occasions upon reaching several dead ends, but they had not run into any Pokémon as of yet, which, instead of reassuring the team, furthered their unease. They had explored a good distance of first floor, but had not seen a glimpse of the stairs. Finally, it appeared that they had caught a break as upon turning a corner, the saw the stairs in the center of the room at the end of the hallway.

"Finally!" Quill said in exasperated relief. He all but ran into the room, not paying attention to what was around him.

"QUILL, LOOK OUT!" Furno shouted towards his friend.

Quill responded too late as when he turned towards his friend, he was blindsided by a swift green blur. The blur slammed into his body, sending him crashing to the ground. Groaning, Quill rolled onto his side, an awkward position due to the pack, and looked up. Towering above him was a large, green, bipedal, insect with two large scythe like hands. It had pale cream colored wings which flitted rapidly.

The Pokémon glared down at Quill with beady black eyes. It raised one of its large blade arms, poised to cut through the grass-fighting type when a torrent of flames blasted into the mantis' side. The Pokémon screeched in pain as is chitinous hide was burned. The force of the flames repelled it away from Quill's prone form.

The rest of the team charged into the dungeon and moved to Quill's aid. "What were you thinking?!" Furno demanded, crouching next to his friend.

"Sorry," Quill mumbled reluctantly, turning to face away from the Chimchar.

"That is a Scyther," Dusty said. "They are a bug-flying type and use its scythes as its primary form of attack."

"Great, we know what it is. Now tell us something useful," Quill all but growled out. Before anymore could be said a loud screech rumbled through the room.

The mantis Pokémon had gotten back to its feet, looking rather charred, and glared at the group. Its wings began to flit rapidly, slowly bringing itself into the air. With another loud screeching clicking-like sound, it flew swiftly towards them, only to meet a blue blur. Zero stood behind the mantis, his paw coated in dark shadowy energy. The mantis faltered in the air before is crashed to the ground, unconsciousness.

Zero turned back towards his team and stared hard at Quill. "Don't charge in like that. We were warned this place was dangerous so we can't afford to be reckless," he scolded.

Once again, Quill turned his head and huffed like a petulant child. Zero mentally sighed at this action. Normally the Quilladin was more cautious when it came to traversing dungeons. In fact, out of all of them, Quill was always the more well versed in terms of dungeon travel, so what had happened.

Zero was broken from his musings by loud echoing calls from various other Pokémon withing the dungeon. Not willing to wait any longer, the climb the stairs.

-Resistance-

 **Malignant Meadow B2**

The group was immediately on guard when they reached the next floor. They could feel various eyes upon them, as if coming from the very trees. With caution, the quartet preceded to make their way through the twisting hallways. Despite this, the feeling of being watched never faded. They entered a small enclosure and were met with a group of Pokémon.

The Pokémon were all green in color and looked almost like little dolls dressed in small shrub-like bodies. They had white faces, green leaf-like hair, and three large, in terms of their own body, sprouted from their heads. There were five in total.

The moment the team entered the room the five Pokémon turned their amber eyes upon the group. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the five Pokémon glared at once and began to make angry chirping noises.

"Petilil," Dusty hissed, preparing to fight. "They are grass types!"

"Furno, Quill!" Zero called, earning nods of understanding from his teammates.

Furno inhaled deeply before spewing a torrent of bright flames at the group while Quill shot a barrage of glowing needles from his quills. The two attacks sped towards the group of grass types. The group all released cries of fear and outrage. Three of them were able to leap out of the way, though two were consumed by the combined attacks. With a cacophonous boom, the attacks met their mark and swallowed up by the ensuing explosion. When the smoke faded, the two were unconscious and three Petilil remained.

Seemingly angered by the swift defeat of their compatriots, the three remaining grass types unleash a barrage of rainbow colored leaves at the group. The group of four immediately leapt out of the way and the leaves stabbed into the ground.

Landing a ways away, Dusty acted first. The mouse Pokémon curled into a ball and sped towards one of the Petilil and slammed into it. The grass type screeched in pain before glaring heatedly at the ground type. Pink petals swirled around the small grass type and shot towards the ground type. Acting quickly, Dusty dove into the ground, allowing him to avoid most of the petals, though some managed to cut at his hide. The Petilil looked around frantically for the ground type only to be sent flying when Dusty shot out of the ground under it.

On the other side of the room Furno and Zero were attacking another wild Pokémon. Zero dodged an energy ball before retaliating with a powerful vacuum wave. The grass type cried out in pain, skidding across the ground. Before it could even recover, Furno plowed into it with a flame wheel sending the grass into unconsciousness.

Turning towards Dusty's battle, and seeing that he was at a disadvantage, Furno sent a flamethrower at the attacking bulb Pokémon. The Petilil gave a shrill cry of pain before it passed out from its injuries. Dusty nodded in thanks to the Chimchar, who smiled in return. The trio turned, about to assist Quill with the other grass type, but saw that he had things well under control.

Quill had practically cocooned the Petilil with his vine whips and was brutally smashing it into the ground. He then swung it towards him and reared back his arm in preparation for a swing. Right before he swung his arm, a bright green energy coated it and several spikes made of the same energy sprouted from it. He swung his needle arm at the helpless Petilil and sent it soaring into the air with a loud **whack**. At the moment of the peak Petilil's reluctant ascent, Quill launched another pin missile barrage at it. The Petilil was unconscious before it hit the ground.

Satisfied with his work, he shot a rather smug smile at his team, particularly at Dusty. Noticing this, Zero frowned. It was as if the Quilladin was competing against the Sandshrew...

"Good job, Quill," Furno said, oblivious to the spiny armor Pokémon's smugness. "Can you toss us an oran berry. Dusty got grazed by a petal dance."

"Oh, he got hit?" Quill said, barely concealing a scoff. He pulled out an oran berry and tossed it to the group, only for a loud caw and a dark blue blur to swoop out of the sky and grab the berry in midair.

The team whipped their heads towards the sky and saw several midnight blue crows with red eyes and a head that was reminiscent of a hat. Their tails were very bushy and a red band tied the tip from the base. The one that had caught the berry glared smugly at the group before sending the blue fruit down its yellow beak.

"Murkrow! Scatter!" Dusty shouted just as the flock cawed loudly and dive bomb the group.

Zero leapt away and released a wave of blue energy at the encroaching bird Pokémon. Two of them were hit, but it did not seem to do a lot of damage to the darkness Pokémon. The ones that were hit glared hatefully at the Riolu and swooped towards him, their beaks glowing white with energy.

Zero narrowly dodged the beaks and slashed one of them across its back with a well placed shadow claw. Said Murkrow screeched in pain before swinging its wing towards the Riolu, the feathers taking on a white glow. Eyes wide, Zero leaned back as far as he could, allowing the wing to barely brush against the fur on his nose. Acting quickly, Zero thrust his paw forward and sent the dark-flying type tumbling through the air. Before Zero could begin to pat himself on the back a sharp, intense pain shot through his back.

Zero gasped as pain racked through his entire body, stemming from his back. Turning his head, he saw the other Murkrow glaring at him, its beak still glowing with power. Zero's ruby gaze hardened at the offending Pokémon before slashing at the darkness Pokémon with a shadow claw and following it with a force palm.

Furno and Dusty were in a similar situation with several Murkrow flying around them and dive at them periodically. Furno sent out hot flames at them to keep them at bay while Dusty did the same with his poison sting attack. They were succeeding in keeping them at bay, but they knew that they birds would soon grow bold and attack more fervently.

True to their prediction, several of the darkness Pokémon dove at them all at once, forcing the two to separate. When one got close enough, Furno coated his fist in electricity and smashed it against the dark-flying type's face. The Murkrow cried out in pain and smashed into the ground, struggling to get back up.

Dusty continued to release a perpetual cloud of poison needles at the offending birds, but it was doing very little other than to keep them back. Apparently annoyed by the Sandshrew's attempts to keep them at bay, several of the attacking Murkrow swung their wings in unison and released multiple blades of wind at the Sandshrew.

Dusty curled himself into a ball for defense as the blades hurtled towards him. The blades slammed into Dusty and the ground simultaneously, kicking up dirt and dust that shielded the mouse Pokémon from view. The Murkrow all stared at the dust cloud with unblinking eyes, waiting to see the Sandshrew. Before the smoke even cleared, a violently rotating yellow ball shot out of it and slammed into one of the Murkrow, knocking it to the ground. With a loud squawk, the Murkrow hit the ground with the Dusty on top of it. He uncurled himself and glared up at the remaining birds.

Out of all of them, Quill was probably having the worst time. He was sending out pin missile after pin missile at the flock of dark types that surrounded him, but they kept avoiding them and diving towards him, hitting him with beaks and wings. He was taking a lot of damage and was barely dealing any of his own.

Finally having enough of this, Quill launched twin vines out, grabbing two of the out of the air. With an angry roar, he swung his captives around, batting the others with their comrades. Now thoroughly dizzy, the two trapped Murkrow were helpless as Quill slammed them into the ground. Before they could get up, he leapt at the downed darkness Pokémon and slammed two brick breaks onto them. They both gave pained squawks before they lost consciousness. Quill looked up and glared at the remaining Murkrow. They had a long way to go.

After several minutes of constant fighting, the few remaining Murkrow fly off with indigent squawks. The rest of the Murkrow were all strewn over the ground covered with scratches, burns, and bruises. All of them were unconscious.

The members of Team Dawn Breaker were all covered in scratches and panting rapidly. They may have won, but they were exhausted.

"That...wasn't...so bad," Quill panted, swaying on his feet.

"Speak for yourself," Furno groaned, falling to the ground. "I'm exhausted!"

"That makes two of us," Zero remarked, equally tired. "At least no we know what was watching us. Those Murkrow must have been following us since the first room

"Unfortunately, it would not be wise to stay here any longer than a few minutes," Dusty said. "Our battle would have surely caught the attention of other wild Pokémon. It will only be a matter of time before they come and investigate."

"Dusty's right," Zero said, cutting off Quill who opened his mouth to most likely refute the ground type's claims. "We can't afford to take too many breaks, especially this far away from our goal. Quill, can you get us some oran berries from the pack?"

"Yeah, yeah," he said, rummaging through their pack. He pulled out four oran berries, three of which he tossed to his teammates.

The team quickly finished off their berries and set off towards what they hoped to be the direction of the stairs.

-Resistance-

 **Malignant Meadow B9**

Things preceded smoothly, relative to how they had been on the second floor. They had run into several other grass types and a few bug types, but a blast of flames from Furno dealt with them rather quickly. However, despite things being somewhat easier, the group was still tiring.

They had exhausted a good number of their berries and several of their seeds in order to put some distance between them and the larger hordes of Pokémon. Even so, the team continued to press on, determined to complete this mission.

"How much longer?" Furno whined.

"We still have four floors before we reach the Throh," Dusty said.

"Almost there," Zero mumbled. "Okay, let's push forward."

"We should still be vigilant," Dusty said.

"And why is that?" Quill asked waspishly.

"Because of monster houses," Dusty explained. Quill's eyes widened with reluctant understanding and realization while Zero and Furno both had looks of confusion.

"What's a monster house?" Furno asked.

Dusty opened his mouth, but Quill beat him to it. "Monster houses are rooms in dungeons where there are a _lot_ of wild Pokémon," he explained. "They move so fast that they practically appear out of thin air."

"The Pokémon in these monster houses are known to be especially aggressive and are less likely to flee," Dusty added. "They are especially common in dungeons over ten floors."

"Well we're pretty deep in already," Furno commented, looking around. "It's unlikely that we would run into one at this point."

"Dammit, Furno!" Quill shouted suddenly, causing his team to jump.

"What?" Furno cried out.

"You just jinxed us!" Quill bemoaned. "Now we're going to run into one!"

"Oh, don't be so superstitious," Furno said with an eye roll. He pushed forward past his team and moved towards the next room. "There's no way that, by just me saying that, we'll run into a-"

The moment he stepped into the room, multiple Pokémon that had previously been hidden leapt out. There were Scyther, Murkrow, Petilil, and a few other Pokémon that they had not encountered yet and they were all glaring hatefully at Furno.

"Okay, I believe," Furno said, still in a state of shock.

Then all hell broke loose.

With loud shrieks, the Murkrow took flight into the air. Several of them swung their wings and released powerful air cutter attacks. The Petilil followed this by sending waves of magical leaf attacks at Furno and some of the others fired green orbs of energy. All of the attacks were aimed directly at Furno.

Said fire type gave a startled yelp and dove into the earth with dig, causing the attacks to explode against the dirt where he used to stand. The remaining trio all ran into the room, green glowing pins, purple needles, and a wave of blue fighting type energy already leaving the group, hurtling towards the assembled wild Pokémon. Their attacks seemed to combine at the last second, forming a wall of energy that slammed into a good number of them. Cries of pain could barely be heard over the explosion that shook the entire floor. Wild Pokémon were sent flying and a couple of them fell unconscious, but the remaining ones were pissed.

One of the Scyther that had been grazed by the explosion screeched in anger and flew at them. When it was about halfway, the ground underneath it cracked and a ball of fire erupted from the ground and slammed into the Scyther's thorax. The flames dissipated from around Furno as he landed gracefully onto the ground while the Scyther crumpled to the ground in unconsciousness.

The rest of wild Pokémon all attacked the quartet at once. Leaves were fired, energy coated wings, blades, and beaks rained down from above, and glowing spheres of energy were thrown in every which direction. While the attacks were mainly aimed towards the group, some stray attacks hit other wild Pokémon, inciting fights among them. While this helped to thin the numbers somewhat, there were still a lot of wild Pokémon left.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Furno exclaimed, toasting yet another bunch of grass types.

"We have to keep fighting and get to the hallway," Quill shouted, grabbing a Poochyena that had attempted to leap onto his back and smashing it to the ground.

"Quill!" Zero shouted. Furno and Quill turned towards the sound of their leader and were horrified to see him surrounded by wild Pokémon and barely defending against them. "Blast seed!"

Understanding what he was asking for, Quill rooted around in the back and pulled out a large yellow seed with an almost none existent red glow in the center. He quickly threw it at Zero who caught it without taking his eyes off of his attackers. He quickly placed the seed in his mouth and bit into the seed. A sharp spiciness flooded the Riolu's mouth and his eyes began to water. Unable to take it anymore, the former human opened his mouth and released a burst of hot flames, not unlike Furno's flamethrower. The flames bit at the surrounding Pokémon, causing them all to cry out in pain and back away.

Once the flames had dissipated, Zero winced and spat on the ground several times. "I hate the taste of those," Zero grimaced.

"On your six!" Zero ducked just in time for Dusty to zoom over his head and slam into a Poochyena that had been sneaking up on him with a rollout attack.

"Thanks, Dusty," Zero said, before slashing at a Petilil with a shadow claw.

"We've got troubles!" Quill's voice called out. Turning to the spiny armor Pokémon their hearts sank as more Pokémon began to spill into the room from the hallways.

"At this rate, we'll be overwhelmed!" Furno said, wincing as several leaves lanced across his arms.

A loud roar momentarily paused the chaos. Turning towards the hallway, they blanched when a large Mightyena bounded into the room, red eyes burning with hate. The large dark type looked around before its gaze settled on Zero and it growled.

"Oh come on," Zero complained as the Mightyena pounced at him.

Zero dove to the side to avoid the larger Pokémon. Getting to his feet he spun around and fired a vacuum wave at the offending Pokémon. The Mightyena leapt out of the way of the attack and dove at Zero once more, its teeth and claws bared. This time, the Mightyena met its mark as it slammed Zero to the ground, pinning the former human. It reared its head back in preparation for a bite and Zero instinctively raised his arm as the beast descended downwards.

"AAHH!" Zero screamed in pain as the bite Pokémon's fangs sunk into his forearm. A low cracking noise reached his ears, stemming from the dark type's fangs beginning to crack the protruding bone nub on his paw. Opening his eyes through the pain, Zero brought up his other paw and hit the Mightyena with a force palm, forcing it off of him.

With the Mightyena no longer pinning him to the ground, Zero quickly got to his feet, clutching his now bleeding arm tightly to his, and glared at the Mightyena as it was slowly getting to its feet. The dark type pushed itself back to its feet, shaking its head as it did so and glared right back at the fighting type. Without any further warning, the two canines charged towards each other.

As the two Pokémon fought, the rest of the wild Pokémon got over their shock and began to attack once again. The team fought to the best of their ability, but they were starting to get pushed back. More and more wild Pokémon kept coming and coming, until there was barely any room left for the team to move. They would be overrun soon.

Dusty realized this and his mind began to work a mile a minute. His eyes lit up as a plan formulated in his mind. He called out for Quill, but the Quilladin showed no sign of hearing him. He tried again, but met the same results. Whether the Quilladin was purposely ignoring him or he just couldn't hear him, Dusty didn't know. What he did know was that he needed to act.

Dusty ran towards his larger teammate, weaving through the hordes of wild Pokémon. When he got to Quill, Dusty tackled him to the ground.

"What the hell?!" Quill shouted in shock and anger, but Dusty paid him no mind. Dusty yanked the pack from the Quilladin and immediately began to root through it. The wild Pokémon started closing in on the duo, intent of tearing through them. Just as they were about to reach them, Dusty found what he was looking for. He pulled out a blue orb from the bag and activated it.

A large flash of light blinded everyone in the room and spread throughout the entire floor. When it faded, the out of the four members of Team Dawn Breaker were stunned to see all of the wild Pokémon frozen in place. The previously flying Pokémon crashed to the ground, unable to fly with their wings stilled. All the others were frozen in whatever position they were in prior to the flash.

Dusty released a sigh of relief, seeing that his plan had worked. They sigh then became a startled yelp as a strong force pushed him from behind and sent him to the ground. Looking up, he was greeted by the seething face of Quill.

"What the hell was that?!" the Quilladin demanded.

"That was a petrify orb," Dusty explained. "They possess the ability to paralyze all wild Pokémon in the user's vicin-"

"That's not what I meant!" Quill shouted angrily. "Why the hell did you tackle me?!"

Dusty frowned. "Because you did not respond to my calls. I had very little time to act, lest we be overrun..."

"I don't care about that!" Quill snapped. "You should have-!"

"Quill, enough!" Zero shouted, pulling himself out from under the frozen Mightyena.

Everything stilled at Zero's shout. Quill slowly turned towards his leader and swallowed thickly when he saw the look of anger in his face. He had seen Zero angry before when Brier and his goons had been bothering them, but never had he been directly under the former human's ruby red glare.

"That is enough, Quill," Zero said, his voice thick with barely restrained anger. "I don't know what your beef with Dusty is, but it stops now."

"But-"

"I'M NOT FINISHED!" Quill flinched at the rage that was present in the Riolu's voice. "I don't care why you are doing this. I have been tolerant of this behavior, but not anymore. You are a member of this team and as such you will work with everyone else. Is that clear?"

"Yes," Quill mumbled.

"Good and don't think for a second that we are not going to discuss this when we get back to the division," Zero added before turning to the other two, who were both dead silent. "Let's go."

-Resistance-

 **Malignant Meadow B13**

The team made there way through the remaining floors at a frustratingly slow pace. The had exhausted their remaining berries and were scarping by with several injuries. They had ended up using another petrify orb when they found themselves being overwhelmed once more.

Quill had also been subdued since the ninth floor. It was clear that he feared enticing Zero's anger again and as such seldom spoke. Zero felt partially guilty over this, but knew that he had to put his foot down. Whatever Quill had against Dusty was interfering with their missions even more now and Zero would not let the Quilladin's personal feelings put them in danger.

The team, after many more battles, finally reached the final staircase and reached their target destination. Unlike with the other floors, this one was a single room with a long hallway that led to the dungeon's exit. A single room with a single Pokémon in the back just opposite of them and in front of the hallway.

The Pokémon had red skin and looked to be wearing a white gi with a black belt. On their face was thick 't' shaped protrusion that ran above their eyes like a brow and ran down his face where their nose would be. The Pokémon appeared to be asleep in a kneeling position as its eyes were closed and its head lowered. When the team approached, the Pokémon spoke.

"Are you from the resistance?" The four of them glanced at each other before Zero stepped forward.

"Yes and we've come to-"

"You've come to bring me in, have you not?" the red Pokémon questioned.

"That depends, are you the Throh thief?" Furno questioned.

"That I am," the now identified Throh said, still keeping his eyes closed.

"Then the answer to your question is yes," Zero said.

The Throh sighed deeply. "I'm getting sick and tired of this." The Throh pushed himself to his feet, but kept his eyes shut. "Time after time. More of you resistance fools continue to accost me at every turn, but no more." The Throh's eyes snapped open and he glared chillingly at the group. "I shall send a message to the resistance that I should not be trifled with with your cold, dead bodies!"

With that, the fighting type slipped into a fighting stance, his eyes burning with hatred.

The quartet took an involuntary step back from the intensity of the Throh's gaze. Zero specifically could feel the bloodlust emanating from the judo Pokémon. Spikefang's paled in comparison to the monster that stood before them. He began to doubt that they could actually defeat such a foe, but before he could decide whether or not to flee, Quill stepped forward.

"Like that would happen!" the grass-fighting type shouted defiantly. "There's no way we'll lose here!" Before anyone could stop him, the Quilladin charged forward.

"Quill! Dammit!" Zero growled before running after his teammate, Furno and Dusty at his heels.

 **Author's Notes**

Hey guys, AuraFighter here. I just wanted to inform you all that the next chapters in both of my stories may be delayed as I have finals in two weeks and I'm also planning on doing a study abroad semester during the spring, so I am trying to get everything in order for that. I should still be able to publish chapters while I'm out of the country, but probably not as frequently. Anyway, just wanted to give you all a heads up just in case. Thank you for your continued support and feel free to leave reviews, I do read them and I take all suggestions to heart.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

A Bitter Lesson

Quill charged wildly at the Throh, who by this point had taken on a relaxed fighting position. Using needle arm, Quill swung his arm at the Throh's head, looking to finish the fight with one shot. He was startled when the Throh's hand flashed forward and caught his arm right at the base of where the energy was collating. Before the spine armor Pokémon even knew what was happening, he was thrown back towards his teammates.

"Quill!" Furno shouted in worry as the grass-fighting slammed into the ground.

"I'm fine," he grunted, getting back to his feet. "He just caught me off guard is all."

"You should not have rushed off like that," Dusty chided sharply.

"Whatever," Quill responded flippantly.

"Not now, guys," Zero broke in. "We deal with the task at hand!"

"Trouble in paradise?" the Throh mocked. "Not much of a team if all you do is fight each other!"

"I'll show you!" Quill growled before attacking with pin missile.

The glowing needles flew toward the fighting type at break-neck speeds, but the Throh just looked at them impassively. Just as the needles were upon him, the Throh lashed out. In a virtual blur of movement, the Throh had deflected each and every one of the glowing pins, sending them flying wildly until they hit the ground.

Quill gaped in shock. "H-How?"

The Throw quirked a questioning brow. "Is that all?"

Eyes narrowing, Zero barked, "Furno, with me!" Nodding in understanding, Furno followed Zero as he charged towards the bulky red Pokémon.

Running at the fighting type, Furno allowed himself to fall slightly behind his team leader before breathing a torrent of flames at the stoic judo Pokémon. The fighting type lazily moved to the side to avoid the flames, only to be met by a certain blue canine. Eyes widening slightly in surprise, the Throh shifted his body out of the way of a force palm aimed for his chest.

In what appeared to be a very awkward looking dance, the Throh continued to dodge the persistent Riolu's force palms. Appearing to have enough of the 'dance', the red Pokémon lashed out and grabbed Zero's outstretched arm and tossed the canine over his shoulder.

While still in the air, Zero shouted, "Now!"

The Throh gave the Riolu a look of confusion before the sound of cracking earth reached his ears. Looking down he saw spiderweb cracks forming right at his feet. He only had a split second to lean back before Dusty burst from the ground. Dusty shot straight out of the ground, missing the fighting type by inches.

The Throh smirked to himself as the Sandshrew sailed over him, only for a look of shock to come over his face when he saw an energy ball sailing towards him. Unable to dodge, the energy ball exploded against the Throh, causing him to grunt in pain. Before he could recover, Furno attacked him with a flame wheel with enough force to push him a couple feet until he gripped the spinning wheel of fire and threw it away from him. As soon as he did this, Quill dashed forward with a rollout.

Quill slammed into the Throh, earning a grunt. The Throh raised his arm to hit the Quilladin, but he bounced off of him. No sooner had he done this, Zero appeared in front of the Throh, white energy trailing behind him from use of his quick attack.

Striking forward lightning fast, Zero slammed a force palm into the Throh's singed chest. The release of energy caused the Throh to give a small cry of pain. The energy from the fighting type move took hold of the gi-garbed Pokémon and he found his muscles tensing and electricity arching over his form.

"He's paralyzed!" Zero shouted, taking note of the arching electricity.

Zero jumped back and was immediately flanked by his teammates. Without needing to speak, the quartet all attacked as one. Furno released a powerful flamethrower, Quill made another energy ball and fired it, Dusty opened his mouth and shot out a barrage of thin purple needles, and Zero summoned a blue wind around him before launching a strong vacuum wave. The attacks swirled around each other and raced towards the paralyzed Throh. The fighting type's eyes widened marginally as the combined attacks met their mark and engulfed him.

A large explosion of their combined energy erupted from the Throh, shredding through the grass around them and releasing a large plume of thick smoke. Lowering the arms that they had used to shield their eyes from the explosion, Team Dawn Breaker gazed towards the spot where the Throh once stood.

"Got him," Quill laughed confidently. "There's no way that he's still up after that!"

"Don't be so sure," Dusty remarked.

"What? Oh, come on, Dusty. There's no way he could still be standing after an attack like that!"

"The fact that he was able to shrug off our other attacks makes me skeptical," Dusty drawled.

Quill opened his mouth the dispute this but was beaten to the punch be another voice. "Well it seems that there is at least one intelligent member on your team."

Their collective heads snapped towards the now alleviating smoke as a figure stepped out from it. The Throh looked no worse for wear, besides a few scratches and scuffs on his gi. He grinned almost evilly at the group of four.

"I admit it, I actually felt that last one." The Throh's facial expression suddenly hardened into a glare. With a shout, he flexed his whole body and the electricity that had been encompassing his body tore from him and dissipated.

"He just...shrugged of the paralysis with a shout?!" Furno exclaimed in horror.

"Unreal," Quill gaped.

"Things just got a bit more difficult," Zero ground out, getting a nod from Dusty.

The Throh relaxed his body and smiled haughtily at the team. "My turn."

No sooner had he uttered these words, the hulking figure blurred forward. Before any of them could react, the Throh was right in front of them. Eye widening in surprise, the team only had time to turn towards the intrusive Pokémon before he punched Quill right in the gut.

Quill coughed violently as he was lifted into the air by the fighting type's fist. Spit flew from Quill's mouth as the Throh halted his in his arm's movement, causing the Quilladin to go flying.

To surprised to even call out their teammate's name, the remaining three acted on pure instinct. Furno launched himself a the red-skinned Pokémon and repeatedly clawed at him with fury swipes. Unperturbed by this, the Throh almost lazily reached out and grabbed the fire chimp by the throat and tossed him into Dusty.

Growling, Zero lunged forward, his paws blazing with shadowing energy. Swiping wildly at the larger fighting type, Zero was further angered by the almost lazy deflection of his attacks. The Throh then suddenly swung his foot in a low sweep, slamming his leg into Zero's shin.

Zero cried out as pain vibrated through his leg as it was forcibly kicked out from under him. Zero crashed to the ground, eyes temporarily closed in pain. Cracking an eye open, Zero gave an undignified yelp as he rolled to the side to avoid a brick break that _cut_ into the ground where Zero once lay.

The Throh raised his arm to deliver another brick break when Dusty crashed into his side with a well-placed rollout. Unfortunately, all this elicited was a small grunt before the judo Pokémon spun around and batted the ground type away with a brick break. At the same time, Furno burst out of the ground behind him and slammed a thunder punch into the fighting type's back. Not missing a beat, the Throh spun around and back handed the chimp Pokémon across the face, sending him flying.

Furno landed with a pain filled grunt. The young fire type was seeing stars after the powerful hit, but he managed to push himself to his feet. When his vision started to come back, Furno blanched when he saw the globe of yellow energy forming in the fighting type's hands.

Grinning triumphantly, the powerful fighting type hurled the ball of energy at the young fire type. Panicking slightly, Furno breathed out a powerful stream of flames to combat against the attack. The focus blast soared straight into the flamethrower, but to Furno's horror, it tore through the flames like a hot knife through butter. Not even getting the chance to cry out in shock, the focus blast slammed into him and detonated.

The ground shook briefly and a pillar of smoke curled into the air from the point of impact. Furno's limp body flew through the smoke before smashing into a tree and falling to the ground. Smoke curled from the fire type's prone form as he laid face down on the ground. He gave no sign that he was getting back up.

"Furno!" Zero shouted in worry and anger.

"Hmm, that's one down," the Throh said as if Furno was just a minor inconvenience.

"Damn you," Zero growled angrily, preparing to charge the fighting type.

"Zero, no!" Dusty shouted, grabbing his leader's arm before he could run off. "You cannot attack him recklessly. Think about this clearly. He's too powerful for us to fight. We need to get out of here."

"But Furno..."

"If we use an escape orb, all allies in the vicinity will teleport out of the dungeon along with the user," Dusty said. "Furno will be with us."

"Screw that!" Quill shouted defiantly. "We can take him!"

Ignoring his teammates, Quill charged forward. He swung the pack around and pulled out a large green seed. Gripping it tightly, he hurled it at the fighting type, just as he began to turn around. The moment the seed touched the Throh it burst in a cloud of green spores. The Throh looked confused at first before his eyes began to flutter and become half-lidded. Before long, his eyes had completely closed and he slumped forward.

Quill smirked triumphantly, "Sleep seeds. Work like a charm!"

Still glowing with his success, Quill ran at the sleeping fighting type, his arm glowing with white fighting type energy. He swung his arm in a downward arc towards the judo Pokémon's head, but was stopped when a familiar three fingered red hand lunged out and grabbed his wrist. Quill's eyes widened in horror as cold sinister black eyes met his.

"That wasn't very nice," he said maliciously.

Quill tried to break away from the fighting type, but his grip only tightened. Tugging Quill towards him, the Throh sent a vicious punch at the spiny armor Pokémon's face, his fist coated in orange energy. The strength of the punch sent Quill flying several meters through the air before he landed in a heap at Zero and Dusty's feet.

"Grr..." Quill growled weakly, pushing himself to his feet.

"Quill, we need to get out of here!" Dusty said. "We are not strong enough to defeat such a for!"

Quill just ignored the Sandshrew in favor of launching a barrage of glowing needles followed by an energy ball at the Throh. Unperturbed by the attacks, the Throh charged forward, batting away the needles to the side with his hands. When the energy ball reached him, he swung both his arms forward and smashed the sphere in between his hands. The explosion that ensued covered the Throh in smoke, but he just ran right through it.

A toxic purple energy swelled around the Throh's fist as he reared it back to pummel the shell-shocked Quilladin, but before he could, Dusty shot forward and rammed into the fighting type's stomach with a rollout. The Throh grunted and stumbled back, his attack temporarily forgotten.

Dusty uncurled himself and glared at the grass-fighting type. "Grab an escape orb and get us out of here! We can't-"

Whatever Dusty was going to say was lost when the Throh struck with his still poison coated fist. The poison jab slammed into the Sandshrew's soft underbelly, lifting him into the air before dropping him. Dusty fell bonelessly on the ground, his eyes shut.

"NO!" Zero shouted before swinging his arm and firing a point blank vacuum wave at the fighting type.

The wave of energy impacted against the fighting type and exploded, causing dust and smoke to erupt from the point of impact. Through the smoke, a red arm lashed out and smacked Zero hard enough to send him spiraling through the air before he crashed into the ground several meters away. Quill was now alone with the Throh.

Still in a state of shock and horror, Quill backed away, tripping as he did so. The Throh sneered down at the fearful Quilladin.

"Is this really the best the resistance can do?" he questioned in disdain. "This was waste of effort."

He turned away and began to walk away. This proved to be the thing that snapped Quill out of his stupor and replaced it with fury.

"Don't you turn your back on me!" he shouted, practically jumping to his feet. He ran forward, with his fist raised. Before he could even touch the fighting type, the Throh spun around and caught the Quilladin's fist.

"You should have ran." Quill opened his mouth to retort only to cough violently when a power-up punch buried itself into his gut. Practically holding the Quilladin up, the Throh's muscles tensed and he threw his fellow fighting type into the air.

Not being able to move, Quill could only tumble in the air like a rag doll as he reached the peak of his ascent. Just as he began to fall, the Throh appeared next to him and grabbed him. Now, with both of them falling, the Throh began to spin, steadily getting faster and faster. As they were about to hit the ground, the Throh let go, flinging Quill straight towards the ground.

Quill slammed into the cold unforgiving ground with enough force to send spiderweb cracks ten feet in every direction. Quill groaned in pain, his entire body screaming in agony. Before he could try and get up, the Throh landed right on him, causing more cracks to spread and causing Quill's body to sink into the ground. The Quilladin's mouth was opened in a silent scream of pain before his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he lost consciousness.

The Throh looked down at the now unconscious Quilladin before sighing. He got up and began to walk away when a shockwave of blue energy slammed into his back. He jolted forward, but gave no other indication that he was in pain. Ignoring the smoke curling from his back, the Throh turned and glared at his attacker.

"Didn't I beat you already?" he questioned.

"I won't...let you hurt them," the Riolu weakly growled.

"Admirable, but pointless." The Throh disappeared in a burst of speed, startling the Riolu who had never seen the Throh move that fast, before appearing in front of the former human. Zero tried raise his arms in defense, but was to slow as the Throh grabbed the Riolu by the throat and slammed him against the tree.

"You all should have ran when you had the chance," the fighting type said monotonously. He raised his fist, orange energy swirling around his fist. "This is your end."

As the fist closed in, Zero closed his eyes, resigning himself to his fate, but instead of a powerful blow to his skull, all he received was a poke to his head.

"And your dead." Zero's eyes snapped open and stared at the now smiling Throh.

"Wh-What?!"

"I won," the Throh, said simply, gently setting the Riolu back on his feet and brushing him off. "I have to say, out of all of the other teams I've fought, you lot were the most tenacious. Though I have to say, that Quilladin of yours is rather hard-headed."

Zero could only stared gobsmacked at the Throh. His personality had done a complete one eighty and was now talking to him like they were friends!

"Why are you sparing me?" Zero demanded.

"What? You want me to kill you?" the Throh asked with a raised brow. He then pulled out an oran berry from under his belt -how he kept it their eluded Zero- and tossed it to the stunned Riolu. He then pulled out three more and went to tend to Zero's teammates.

"But...But you're a criminal!"

"That's what they tell you," the Throh said, seemingly without a care as he fed an oran berry to Dusty and Quill. "That's the role I'm forced to play."

"Play?" Zero questioned.

"Yep," the Throh said cheerfully.

"But that means..."

"That's right! The resistance put me up to this!" he said, assisting Furno.

"The resistance put you up to this?" Quill asked, his consciousness just starting to come back.

"Yep. See, that's my job," the Throh said. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mifune and I am an instructor from the Cobalion Division."

"You're part of the resistance?!" Furno exclaimed.

"Ding-ding! We have a winner!" Mifune said cheerfully.

"But...why do this?" Furno asked.

"Well, like I said, I'm an instructor," Mifune explained. "I teach young teams how to deal with the unexpected, ie: when things don't go as planned."

"That was what this was," Dusty realized.

"Correct," Mifune nodded. "I was meant to show you that not every mission goes as planned and how to deal with a opponent well over your caliber."

"But we couldn't deal with you," Furno said in confusion.

"Exactly," Mifune said. "You couldn't. There is always going to be someone stronger than you out there, no matter how strong you are. When faced with such a foe, you must learn when you must fight and when you must run."

"You were trying to teach us to run away?" Quill asked in disgust.

"Better to run and fight another day then to die," Mifune said grimly. "Who would you be helping if you were to have died here? You would do nothing but weaken the resistance and disappoint Stride."

"How'd you know about Stride?" Zero asked, becoming suspicious.

"Please, Stride, one of the resistance most prominent members, revered in every division, taking on students? Everyone knows about Team Dawn Breaker, but that's beside the point. What I am trying to tell you is there are some fights that you just can't when and when faced with those fights, sometimes the only option is to retreat." He looked directly at Zero. "As the leader of your team, it is up to you to make these calls."

Zero bowed his head in both shame and understanding. He knew that he should have called of the team the moment he saw that their attacks hadn't been doing anything to the elder fighting type. He was just so proud that he thought that his team could handle it. He allowed his arrogance to put his team, his friends, in danger.

"Now don't beat yourself up over this," Mifune said, seeing the Riolu's expression. "Every team goes through something similar, even Team Surge. You have nothing to be ashamed of, just learn from your fight today."

"Understood," Zero said, still feeling slightly depressed.

"Good, now get the hell out of here. I need a nap," the fighting type grumbled before lumbering off, leaving the quartet alone.

"Let's get out of here," Zero said, trying his best to keep his dejection out of his voice.

"Yeah," Furno replied, sounding equally depressed. Neither Dusty or Quill said anything.

Without another word, Team Dawn Breaker existed Malicious Meadow.

-Resistance-

It was with a heavy hearts that Team Dawn Breaker returned to the Latios Division. They dragged themselves to their quarters and were met by a smiling Bolt.

"Hey guys. Good to see you all back in one piece," the Manectric said when he saw the group. When his only response was a noncommittal grunt from the group, he frowned. "You understand why I sent you on this mission, right? This wasn't me being mean. I honestly just want you all to succeed and you can't do that without experiencing failure. I want you to succeed, but you all were getting big heads and you needed to be taken down a peg."

"Yeah, we understand," Zero responded in a dead tone. He knew Bolt was right, but the loss still left a bitter taste in his mouth. He knew this mission was supposed to teach him that their were some fights that he couldn't win, but all it did was make him want to get stronger.

As if reading his mind, Bolt smiled. "You want to get stronger, don't you? Practically all fighting types are like that when they lose a fight. This can be both a blessing and a curse for you." At Zero's confused look, Bolt elaborated, "On one hand, such losses will push fighting types to better themselves until they are able to overcome that which previously opposed them. On the other hand, they can also become obsessed with getting stronger.

"They can sometimes do nothing but train and train until they collapse from exhaustion and once they recover, they get up and do it all again. The begin to neglect their other duties and needs. Some have even been known to abandon their own teammates in order to get stronger."

Furno and Dusty couldn't help but glance at their two resident fighting types and were relieved to see looks of disgust mirrored on the duo's faces.

"They'd abandon their team? That's terrible!" Quill exclaimed, getting an agreeing nod from Zero.

Bolt smiled at the duo. "Good to know that you two aren't like that. Even so, you must keep in mind that the road to becoming great is always paved with those that are stronger than you. It is up to you to know what battles you can and can't win."

"Understood," Zero said with nods from his team.

Bolt smiled at them. "Don't worry, the sting goes away after a while, just give it time," he said, before padding away. Just as he turned the corner he called back, "Remember; what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!"

"Right," Zero said dully before following his team into their rooms.

"Ugh, I want to sleep for a week," Furno said, crashing on a couch. Thankfully, Kecleon had sold them fire proof furniture so Furno didn't accidentally burn their room to the ground.

"I know what you mean, Quill agreed, following his teammate's example. "I feel like an Ursaring during winter!"

"Don't get comfortable, Quill. I want to talk to you," Zero said with a definite tone.

Quill's body went rigid at that before he sighed in defeat knowing that he would not be able to get out of this ensuing conversation. He begrudgingly got to his feet and followed his leader to his rooms. Furno and Dusty exchanged worried glances, hoping that Quill would be okay.

-Resistance-

Quill shuffled nervously, determined to look anywhere but at Zero. "Uh, this is a nice room," he said in a poor attempt to prolong the inevitable. "The aura crystals really-"

"Quill," Zero interrupted.

"Right. No pussyfooting around it," Quill said sheepishly.

"I want to know what's going on between you and Dusty," Zero said, deciding to get right to the point.

"N-Nothing's going on," Quill denied.

"Quill," Zero said with a 'I-don't-believe-you' look.

"Look, it's just...we just don't get along."

"But why?"

"We just don't, okay?!" Quill snapped.

"No, it's not okay!" Zero shot back, narrowing his red eyes. "Your constant fights are constantly getting in the way during our missions!"

"Look, it's nothing major..."

"I beg to differ," Zero said. "Ever since Dusty joined, you've gotten reckless. You'll jump headlong into fights without an ounce of caution, you've questioned several of my decisions, and you're constantly trying to one up Dusty. I can only imagine that your change in attitude is related to Dusty joining the team, so I want to know why that is. Why has Dusty joining the team changed you so much?"

Quill lowered his gaze, refusing to answer. Zero's glare hardened. "I want an answer, Quill!" Quill mumbled something that Zero couldn't hear. "What was that?"

"Because I don't want to be replaced!" Quill shouted.

All was silent at the Quilladin's exclamation.

"What was that?" Zero whispered.

Quill slumped forward in defeat. "I...I thought that when Dusty joined the team, you were looking for a new teammate to replace me. After all, you met him first and he's been at the daycare for the sole purpose of joining your team, so I thought that...I was just temporary..."

"Quill..."

"And you never really chose me to join the team," Quill continued. "I kind of just forced myself on you guys. So with Dusty here, it's only natural that you would want him instead. But I don't want to leave."

"Quill."

"I really like you guys and I don't want to leave the team!" Quill prattled one. "I thought that if I proved that I was stronger than Dusty you'd let me stay, but I only mucked things up. I'll understand if you don't want me as part of the te-"

 **Smack!**

Quill's ramblings were cut off when Zero, smacked him over the back of his head. Quill stared at the furious Riolu in shock before a resigned look crossed over his face.

"Right. I'll just pack up my things," Quill mumbled, turning to leave.

"I did not dismiss you." Quill winced at the coldness in the Riolu's voice. He turned to face him and was confused to see a soft smile playing over the former humans face.

"Quill, we may not have chosen you in the conventional sense, but you are a member of Team Dawn Breaker, and nothing will change that." Zero said. "I'm sorry if you felt that we were replacing you, but it's not true. You don't have to prove yourself to stay on the team because you already have."

Zero placed an affirming paw on the stunned spiny armor Pokémon's shoulder. "You have proven yourself time and time again. You have earned your place on the team and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!"

Quill's eyes started to water before he grabbed the Riolu into a back-breaking hug and stared bawling hysterically. Zero gave a pained smile, awkwardly patting his arm in reassurance. This only made Quill sob even louder, practically crushing his leader with his hug.

"Okay, your starting to hurt me Quill," Zero managed to choke out.

"I'm so sorry for everything!" Quill cried.

"It's okay," Zero reassured. "But I can't...breathe!"

Thankfully, Quill let him go, giving the emanation Pokémon a chance to catch his breath. "Sorry," the Quilladin murmured.

"It's fine," Zero assured him. "I hope this proves that you have a place on the team."

"Yeah," Quill sniffed. "I think I owe Dusty an apology.

"That would be best," Zero said with a smile.

Quill returned the smile and the duo moved towards the door. When they opened the door, they were surprised when Furno fell forward with a yelp and landed at their feet. The fire type looked up and scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Hehe. Whoop?" Zero sighed at his friends antics.

"Really, Furno?" The chimp Pokémon had the decency to look ashamed.

"Well, I was just worried is all," Furno said with an unconvincing huff.

"Right," Zero said, rolling his eyes.

As they were talking, Quill made his way over to the former wild Pokémon. Dusty looked up at the grass-fighting type and cocked his head to the side.

"Yes?" he questioned.

"Dusty...I would like to apologize for my actions towards you these past few weeks," Quill said sincerely. "I know no explanation I give you can make things right, but I hope we can move past it and work together in the future."

He held his hand out to the Sandshrew to shake, but he didn't get his hopes up. After what he put the ground type through he didn't expect to be forgiven.

Dusty regarded the outstretched hand with an unreadable expression. Quill's gaze lowered, thinking that Dusty was denying him. He was about to lower his hand with a much smaller hand fell into his and gripped it. Looking up and saw the mouse Pokémon was smiling softly at him.

"I accept your apology and I hope that we can work well in the future," Dusty said.

Quill looked stunned for a second before a bright smile stretched over his face. "I'm Quill, it's nice to meet you."

Dusty cocked his head to the side in confusion. "I know this. Why are you telling me your name once more?" Quill just laughed.

"Oh, Dusty. I have _so_ much to teach you," Quill said. Dusty just looked more confused. Neither of them noticed Furno and Zero watching them with smiles on their faces.

"It's nice to see them finally getting along," Furno commented.

"Yeah," Zero nodded in agreement.

"You did a good job, Zero," Furno said abruptly causing the Riolu to look at him.

"I just talked to him."

"No, you did more than that. You made him feel like he's part of the team."

"He _is_ part of the team."

"I know, but sometimes we need reassurance," Furno said with a smile.

The duo stood in silence for a while. "Furno?"

"Yeah Zero?"

"I appreciate you."

"Oh, shut up!" Furno laughed, punching the smirking canine in the arm.

"What?" Zero asked innocently -or what would have been innocent if not for his 'cat-that-ate-the-canary' grin. "I thought you said you liked to be reassured."

"I'll show you reassurance," Furno growled playfully before pouncing on his friend, getting a startled yelp from the Riolu.

"GAH!" Zero shouted as Furno pulled him to the floor. "Mutiny!"

"Say uncle!" Furno shouted.

"Never!" Zero laughed, trying to wrestle the fire type off him.

The two rolled around on the ground, both struggling for dominance and laughing like the kids they were. On the other side of the room Quill was laughing loudly while Dusty cocked his head to the side.

"Is Furno really starting a mutiny? Should we assist Zero?" the Sandshrew asked.

"No, their just messing around," Quill assured the small ground type. He smiled at his two teammates' antics. It was refreshing to see them acting their age, something that was hard to do in this day and age. That's partially why he always acted so carefree; to allow others the chance to smile. That's what Crass always taught him...

The moment was shattered by a knock at the door.

"Who's that?" Furno asked, still on the floor with Zero.

"Let me up and I'll see," Zero said with a smirk as he shoved the fire type off of him. He walked to the door and opened it, revealing a Delibird.

"Hello, are you Team Dawn Breaker?" the ice-flying type asked.

"Yes?" Zero said uncertainly.

"Good, I've got a letter for you!" the Delibird rummaged in his...bag and pulled out a thick white envelope. "Here we are!"

"Thanks," Zero said, giving the delivery Pokémon a strange look. He reached out and took the letter -noting that it felt relatively heavy- and was about to close the door when a clipboard and pen were shoved into his face.

"Sign please," the Delibird requested.

"Right." Zero quickly signed his name and handed it back.

"Have a nice day!" the Delibird said cheerfully before flying off.

"Weird," Zero muttered, closing the door and returning to his team.

"Who was that?" Furno asked, having gotten off the floor.

"A Delibird," Zero said, looking over the letter. "He gave me this."

"Well open it!" Quill said excitedly.

Seeing no reason not to, Zero cut open the seal and turned the envelope upside down to remove the contents. A golden charm fell out of the envelope and into Zero's outstretched paw. Looking closer at it, Zero saw that it appeared to be in the shape of a flame with a swirl in the middle.

As soon as Furno laid eyes on the charm he released a blood-curdling scream.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Desperation

"Furno, what's wrong?!" Zero shouted in alarm over his friend's reaction, accidentally dropping the little gold charm that came from the envelope.

"Th-That charm," Furno whispered in horror, his eyes glued to the little gold item.

"What about it?" Quill asked, bending down to pick it up.

"DON'T TOUCH IT!" Quill leapt back in shock and a little fear from the Chimchar's borderline roar. The little fire type quickly scurried forward and with great care lifted the charm from the ground.

"Okay, what's going on, Furno?" Quill asked, annoyance coloring his voice. "What is that thing?"

"It's...a charm," Furno muttered.

"Obviously," Quill scoffed. "but a charm of what?!"

"I was getting to that!" Furno snapped angrily before looked back to the golden object in his hands. "It's an Infernape Charm."

"An Infernape Charm?" Zero questioned.

"Yeah," Furno nodded while taking a calming breath "When a Monferno evolves into an Infernape this golden charm grows on the back of their hands. They are seen as a symbol of pride among Infernape everywhere, even to wild Infernape. To lose their charm is the ultimate shame to any Infernape out their. Some have even been known to kill themselves should they lose this charm."

"Whoa," Quill said in amazement and slight horror, a sentiment that was mirrored by Zero. Dusty, on the other hand, merely frowned at this new information.

"I understand why seeing one would be shocking, but why would you scream like that?" Dusty asked suspiciously. "You sounded...scared."

Furno just stared down at the small charm in his hands, his eyes bleeding with conflicting emotion. "This charm..." he spoke finally. "it has a scratch running down the center of it."

Frowning at the fire chimp, the others looked closer at the small charm and saw that there was indeed a relatively long and jagged scratching running down the middle of the charm.

"So?" Quill questioned.

"I only know of one Infernape that had a charm with a scratch in it like that," Furno continued.

"Who?"

"My father."

A collective sharp intake came from the other three. They looked at their resident fire type and immediately understood his reaction.

"Furno..." Zero tried. "Maybe...maybe it's not his."

"You don't understand, Zero, that scratch...it's not just similar to the one my fathers' has, it's _exactly_ the same!" Furno exclaimed, his voice thick with emotion.

"Are you sure?" Dusty asked. "I'm sure many Infernape have scratches on their charms."

Furno whirled towards the Sandshrew and glared scathingly. "Yes I'm sure. I've been seeing that same scratch on my father's charm all my life! You think I wouldn't recognize it?!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's all calm down," Zero said, stepping in between the two with his paws raised in a placating manner. "Furno, you know Dusty didn't mean anything by what he said. He just wanted to be sure."

"Well I am sure!" Furno growled. "I'm also sure that he'd rather die than take of his charm!"

"Then I believe you," Zero said simply, causing Furno to blink owlishly at him.

"Y-You do?" he asked almost shyly.

Zero smiled at his friend. "Of course. You're a member of the team and I trust you with my life," Zero said with a smile. "Plus, you believed me when I told you I was human. It would be rather hypocritical of me to not believe you, wouldn't it?"

Furno's eyes started to water at that. He looked over to Quill and Dusty and saw them both giving him supportive smiles and nods. Furno looked down, tears now spilling from his eyes and smiled. "Thank you."

"No problem," Zero said with a smile before turning serious. "Now, we need to figure out who sent that charm."

"Was there a letter in the envelop as well?" Dusty asked.

"Good idea, Dusty!" Zero said, before opening the envelope again. After a second, he pulled out a yellowish piece of folded paper. Zero carefully unfolded the paper and began reading it.

"Is that a letter?" Furno asked anxiously.

Zero didn't answer right away, his gaze firmly fixed on the sheet of paper, a frown marring his face. "No, it's a mission request."

"A mission request?" Quill asked.

"Yeah, see for yourselves," Zero said, showing them the paper.

Mission Title: Return the Charm'

Objective: Return the golden charm in this envelope to the Infernape that lives on the edge of Briarwood Village, just south of Shrouded Forest. The charm must be returned by the Autumn equinox.

Client:

Reward: ?

"Briarwood Village?" Quill read.

"That's my home," Furno whispered, earning stares from his team. He looked at them with desperate eyes. "That's where my parents live! They must be in trouble!"

"Furno..." Zero attempted to calm the Chimchar down, but he didn't listen.

"No! My parents could be in danger! I have to help them!" Furno cried.

"We will, but we need to think this through," Zero said firmly. He turned to the other two who had been silent through this. "When is the Autumn equinox?"

"Tomorrow," Quill murmured reluctantly, tensing for the impending explosion. He didn't have to wait long.

"Then we need to go now!" Furno shouted, making towards the door. "I have to save them!"

"Furno!" Zero shouted, lunging forward and grabbing the Chimchar before he could leave.

"Let go of me, Zero!" Furno shouted, frantically trying to reach the door.

"No! Furno we have to think this through!" Zero shouted, struggling to keep hold of the squirming fire type.

"There's no time!" Furno exclaimed, shooting a small gout of flame at Zero, forcing him to let go. Now free, Furno made a mad dash for the door only to be tripped up by Zero. Furno fell onto his stomach and was immediately pounced on by Zero.

"Think with your head for a second!" Zero growled as he tried to keep the fire type pinned. "You said it yourself, the emperor wanted _you_. He wanted you as part of his army because of your Ikari Flame and he sent Aster to your home before to get you, so he obviously knows where you live. This could all be a trap!"

Furno struggles gradually diminished as Zero spoke before he was completely still. Seeing this, Zero continued. "If he's still after you then this would be what he would do to lure you out into the open and capture you. The fact that there is no client listed only solidifies this!"

"But...but what if they are in danger?" Furno asked with such a broken and chocked that Zero felt himself wince. He got off of his friend, pulled him to his feet, and forced him to look at him.

"Furno, we will figure this out, we just need to take some time and work things out," Zero said slowly. "We'll take the letter and the charm to Stride and Team Surge and see what they say. They'll know what to do. Okay, Furno?"

Furno reluctantly nodded, tears spilling down his face. "Furno, I promise we'll get through this and I'll be by your side no matter what happens."

Furno sniffed pitifully before hugging his friend tightly. "Thank you...Zero."

"Don't worry about it," Zero said embarrassingly, awkwardly patting Furno on the pack in what he hoped was a comforting manner. "Now let's go see Stride."

"Okay," Furno murmured into the Riolu's fur.

-Resistance-

Ten minutes later found the entirety of Team Dawn Breaker sitting in the middle of Team Surge's barracks. Zero had just told the senior team about the letter, the charm, and Furno's own belief regarding the matter. Said Chimchar sat slightly curled in on himself, either unable or unwilling to look at the larger team.

The entire team, to their credit, took the information in stride. The all stared at the younger team with mixed looks of seriousness, pensiveness, and pity. After a solid minute of silence, Stride spoke.

"I can see why you brought this to us. It was good on you four to ask for guidance instead of running off on your own."

From the corner of his eye Zero saw Furno curl in on himself more, an embarrassed flush brightening his cheeks. Zero chose to ignore it in favor of listening to Stride as he started to speak again.

"I commend your decision, Zero," he commended. "It takes a true leader to admit that they need help. Very good on you."

"Training them up right, aye Stride?" Jasmine said with a smirk.

"That is nothing to do with me," Stride denied. "That was all him."

"If we are quite done with the gratitude fest!" Seth grunted angrily.

"Right," Stride said, becoming serious. "Onto our next course of action."

"Next course of action?" Seth snarled. "There shouldn't be a _course_ of action. This is obviously a trap for the Chimchar. It would be foolish for us to go."

Furno's head snapped up at that. "What? But my family could be in danger! We have to make sure they're okay!"

"It would be a fool's journey," Seth waved the young chimp Pokémon's concerns. "If you were to go, more likely than not, you would be captured and forced into the emperor's labor camp."

"But what if they hurt my family if I don't show?" Furno demanded.

"And what would you have us do?" Seth asked, pinning the smaller fire type with a harsh glare. "Send in several teams to Briarwood Village just so you can check on your parents? Ha! It would be like walking into a slaughter."

"Seth," Liz chided.

"What? It's true!" the Absol scoffed. "We would be freely walking into a trap! We'd be needlessly losing valuable members!"

"But their my family!" Furno shouted.

"And the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few," Seth snapped. "If we were to go, we would be at risk just so you can check on the well being of other resistance members just so you can _check_ on two _civilians_."

"And even if were to agree to mounting a mission to check on their welfare, we would need approval from the tribunal," Samuel added, seeing the Chimchar still wanted to argue.

"How long would that take?" Furno asked anxiously.

"Well considering that they have to deliberate among themselves to determine if the mission is worth their time and, if it is, what rank the mission is," Wake said, thinking hard. "About a week."

"But this paper says by tomorrow!" Furno exclaimed.

"I realize that, but that's how things work," Wake said with a shrug.

"But..."

"Listen here, hatchling," Seth growled, venom burning at his tongue. "there are rules to the resistance. We don't just go around all willy-nilly, doing whatever we want whenever we want. We have to follow the rules set by the resistance's founders. There is nothing you can do."

Furno's hands clenched in anger and denial. He looked around the room in desperation, wanting to find any semblance of support for his cause. What he got were a bunch of pitying glances. Furno's breath hitched in sadness as defeat settled into his mind. His head lowered and his gaze found purchase on the floor.

The young Chimchar was sending waves of depression from his body which could only be felt my the emanation Pokémon sitting next to him. It broke his heart to see his friend like this. He wanted to help him, but it seemed that it was out of his hands, or paws.

"Well, it _normally_ would take a week," Stride said suddenly. "If we told the tribunal."

As a collective unit, the Pokémon assembled heads' all shot up in unison, their gazes firmly locked onto the smirking Greninja.

"What?" Furno asked, his voice containing an inkling of hope.

"Stride, what are you saying?" Bolt asked, giving his leader a curious look.

"I'm saying, that we keep this to ourselves," Stride clarified.

"That's treasonous!" Seth shouted, jumping to his feet.

"No, it's following a lead that could _potentially_ aid the resistance," Stride said slyly.

"And when the tribunal finds out that we went against orders?" Seth asked angrily. "We're supposed to be at Razed Ridge!"

"Better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission," Stride said nonchalantly. "Besides, I'm sure my brother and his team would be more than happy to cover for us."

"What a fine example you are setting for the hatchlings," Jasmine commented dryly, rolling her eyes in exasperation. Stride just smiled cheekily.

"You mean...you'll help me," Furno asked in a small voice. "You'll help me check on my parents."

"I'm not going to lie to you, Furno. I'm not all for this idea," Stride confessed, steepling his webbed hands. "I agree with Seth in the regard that this could very well be a trap, but I understand your desire to check in on your family. Family is important to all of us, and should especially be treasured in times such as these."

"So what? We enlist several others to join us as we check up on his parents?" Seth asked sarcastically.

"No, I believe only myself, Team Dawn Breaker, and Mystic will be enough for this endeavor," Stride replied.

"Are you mad?!" Seth all but shouted.

"I am quite sane, thank you very much," Stride said, before turning to the Meowstic, who was staring at him unblinkingly. "Mystic, if we got close enough, do you think you can feel for any soldiers?"

The constraint Pokémon thought about it for a second. "Yes... I believe that I would be capable that."

"Excellent." The Greninja then gave Furno a serious look. "This is what's going to happen. We're going to get close to the village and Mystic is going to 'look' for any of the emperor's soldiers lying in wait. If I decide there are two many there, or if it is too dangerous, we leave. End of discussion. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir!" Furno said, visibly eager.

"Good, then we have a plan," Stride said with a nod.

"This is utterly ridiculous," Seth grumbled before padding off.

One by one, the rest of Team Surge began to exit for their own rooms, speaking words of encouragement and luck to the team. Before long it was just Team Dawn Breaker and Stride sitting in the lounge.

"Thank you so much," Furno said, practically groveling to the Greninja.

"Don't thank me yet. The outcome of this is still up for grabs," Stride said.

"I know, but still... Thank you for giving me this chance," Furno said.

"Think nothing of it. If I were in your situation, I would most likely be doing the same thing you're doing," Stride replied.

Furno turned to Zero with an excited smile. "Can you believe it, Zero. I'm going to see my family again. Oh, you'll love Briarwood Village. It's small, but it's beautiful! There's flowers all over, the villagers are nice, there's also this bakery that makes the best pecha berry pie that are- Zero, are you okay?" he asked, noting the frown on the Riolu's face.

"I'm fine, it's just..." Zero turned to Furno with a furrowed brow. "Are you sure that we should do this?"

"What do you mean? These are my parents we're talking about," Furno said, not understanding what his friend was talking about.

"I know, but like Seth and Stride said, this is most likely a trap and we could get seriously hurt or worse if we get caught."

"Zero...what are you saying?" Furno asked warily.

"I'm...I guess I'm wondering if...if this is all worth it," Zero confessed.

"What do you mean if it's worth it?" Furno asked dangerously, anger flaring up in him.

"I mean, if this is a trap, we would be doing more harm then good is all," Zero tried to explain, but it only seemed to anger Furno more.

"So what? My parents don't matter enough, is that it?" Furno questioned venomously, his flame sparking dangerously.

"That's not what I'm saying..."

"Then what are you saying, because it sounds to me that you don't think my parents are important enough to deserve our attention!" Furno shouted jumping to his feet.

"That's not at all what I'm saying!" Zero argued, getting to his feet as well. "What I'm trying to say is that we could be putting the team at risk for nothing!"

"My parents aren't nothing!" Furno roared, his tail flame bursting forth as if oil had been poured over it. The flame just crested at the nape of the Chimchar's neck and danced with fury.

Quill and Dusty watched the duo as if they were some kind of hellish game of tennis. Both had looks of horror and fear etched into their faces as they watched their friends and teammates' argument devolve into a shouting match. Stride too watched the fight, but wore a mask of impassiveness.

"Look," Zero said, trying desperately to calm himself down and diffuse the situation. "I'm not saying your family is unimportant, I'm really not. I'm just pointing out that if this _is_ a trap our lives and _your_ freedom are at stake!"

"I don't care about that! About my freedom! Their my parents and I would do anything for them, but you wouldn't understand that because _you_ don't have anyone. _You're_ alone in this world so you couldn't possibly imagine what I'm going through!" Furno shouted vindictively.

The room grew uneasily quiet at Furno's last shout. Everyone, Stride included, looked alarmed over what Furno had just said and were shooting worrying glances at the former human. Zero himself just stood there, wide-eyed.

As if realizing what he had just uttered, a look of horror slowly crept over Furno's visage. "Z-Zero... I didn't...I didn't mean..."

Zero's shocked expression then faded, leaving a blank mask in its place. Even his eyes seemed to lose all life that had once been burning. "No, it's fine. You're right after all. I don't have any parents like you do."

Furno winced at his friend's dead tone. He tried to reach out to him, but Zero backed away. "You do as you wish. I'll be in my room," he murmured before making his way to the door. No one moved until the door creaked open and closed again.

"What the hell was that, Furno?!" Quill shouted angrily.

"I-I don't know. I was just so angry and I..." Furno could only look at his hands in absolute horror over what he had just done. What he had just said. "What have I done?" he asked aloud to no one in particular. "How could I say that to him?!"

Furno made to run towards the door, but a webbed hand held him in place. "Let him be," Stride said.

"But I have to apologize for-"

"Now is not the time," Stride interrupted firmly. "You both need time to fully cool off. You are close to Zero, closer than I could ever hope to be, even as a mentor. He will forgive you in time, but you need to let that time come naturally."

Furno looked mutinous at that, but a stern glare from the Greninja made him lower his head in defeat. "Okay," he muttered, taking another glance at the door his friend had just walked through and hoping that things would return to normal.

"Good, now get some rest," Stride said lightly, turning and making his way to his own quarters. "We will leave in the morning."

-Resistance-

The next day couldn't come quick enough for Furno. When he, Quill, and Dusty had returned to their rooms, Zero was nowhere in sight. Furno had wrestled with the notion of entering his room and apologizing, but decided against it in the end. Stride had told him that he should give the former human space, but the guilt was weighing heaving on the little fire type's heart. By the time it was time for them to depart, Furno had not had a wink of sleep. Dark circles shadowed his eyes and his normally light peach skin was significantly paler.

He stepped out of his room and greeted Dusty and Quill. He sent a glance towards Zero's room, which had remained closed, and sighed.

"Let's go," he said, not even trying to hide his sadness.

"Should we wait for Zero?" Dusty asked, casting a worried glance at their leader's door.

"I don't think he's coming," Furno said sadly, shaking his head depressedly. "You guys don't have to come if you don't want to. I'd understand."

"There's no way we're letting you do this by yourself," Quill said determinedly with Dusty nodding next to him.

Furno nodded gratefully at the two. He cast one last look towards Zero's door before he left the rooms, Dusty and Quill close behind.

The trio solemnly walked through the hallways of the underground base. As they walked, they received greetings and inquires of where Zero was from other members, but they only returned half-hearted replies. The air of depression and solemness seemed hang over the small group of three and everybody could feel it. The trio made it to their normal exit route and saw Stride and Mystic waiting for them.

Stride appeared to be talking with Mystic about something. He noticed the trio's approach and turned to greet them, immediately noticing Zero's absence. "No Zero?"

The trio shook their heads sadly. Stride gave them a consoling look. "These things take time. Zero will come around. Sooner or later..."

"I'd prefer sooner," Furno mumbled. "I want to apologize to him..."

"I know. You'll get your chance," Stride assured. "Just have patience."

"Right..." Furno said, clearly unconvinced.

"It would be best if you did not let such things affect your mind going into this," Mystic said tonelessly. "Such feelings will weigh on your mind and you will make mistakes."

Furno just nodded silently. Quill gave his teammate a concerned look while Dusty looked solemn.

Looking over the trio, Stride nodded. "Okay then. Let's go."

The quintet turned and were about to exit the base when a voice called out to them.

"Wait!"

The group turned and saw a familiar Riolu running towards them. The young fighting type skidded to a halt in front of them, painting slightly.

"You weren't going to leave without me, were you?" he asked, a slight smile on his face.

"I didn't think you wanted to come," Furno said softly, refusing to meet his friend's eye.

"Furno..." Zero placed a paw on the Chimchar's shoulder, causing him to look up. What he saw was a soft smile playing on the blue canine's face. "What you said...it hurt, don't get me wrong" -Furno gave a wince at that- "but I promised you that I would always stand by your side. This is no different."

Furno's eyes widened in surprise and began to moisten in pure happiness. He leapt forward and tackled the former human in a spine breaking hug. "I'm so sorry, Zero!" he sobbed, clutching his friend like a lifeline. "I didn't mean what I said! I swear to Arceus I didn't! I was just so angry and I..."

"Furno, it's fine," Zero interrupted, patting his friend on the back.

"No it's not," Furno cried. "I was wrong when I said you didn't have anyone, because you do! You have me! You have me, Quill, Dusty, Stride, Team Surge -maybe not Seth-, all of us! You're not alone!"

Zero's eyes widened before he too became misty eyed. He hugged Furno back tightly and smiled. "Thank you."

The two stood like that for a while, oblivious to what was going on around them. However, the moment was broken by the sound of a throat clearing.

"While I hate to break up such a touching moment, we really do need to get going," Stride said, appearing to be making an attempt to be professional, but couldn't hide his pleased smile. Dusty and Quill were no better than he while Mystic was...stoic.

"Right," Furno said, breaking the hug and wiping his eyes. "Sorry."

Zero too quickly wiped his eyes and gained a determined look in his eye as he addressed Furno. "Let's get you to your parents."

Furno smiled gratefully at his friend. "Right. Let's do it!"

With that, the now group of six exited the base and made their way to Briarwood Village, their minds clear of past guilt and determination on the forefront of their minds.

-Resistance-

 **Briarwood Village Outskirts**

After less than a days travel, the group of mixed teams stood just outside of the village, hidden at the edge of Shrouded Forest. It was about mid-afternoon and with the sun just beginning its descent, there was plenty of light to see what laid before them.

Looking at the village just a few yards away, they could visibly see the small square buildings that were most likely the domiciles of the village's denizens. The houses appeared to be either single or double floored with one or two windows depending on the height of the buildings and were made of hard gray stone with wooden support beams framing them and blue wooden roofs. Some of those homes had chimneys peaking from the side of the roofs. There were also several buildings that were considerably larger than the homes, but looked to be built in the same way.

Bright vibrant grass grew unevenly through the village with colorful wild flowers dotting the landscape. Dirt roads branched out rather sporadically, some of the paths leading to homes or buildings while others seemed to lead to nowhere. There was also a very large field towards the edge of the town with several small trees growing in lines. From their position, the group could just make out small dots of color on those trees.

"So this is Briarwood Village," Quill commented softly. "It's very..."

"Quaint," Mystic supplied, staring intently at the village.

"Yeah, that," Quill said, giving the Meowstic a slightly perturbed look that went unnoticed by the psychic bunny-cat.

"That's my house," Furno said, pointing to the house closest to the forest. It was one of the few homes that had smoke coming from its chimney.

"Looks like someone's home," Stride said. "Mystic, do you sense anyone hostile in there?"

Mystic didn't reply. The yellow of the sclera in her eyes began to glow brightly and her red pupils narrowed into pin points, seemingly in concentration. Her ears stood straight up revealing marks that resembled a red eye with a yellow iris and red pupil. The symbols glowed an eerie red.

While this was happening, Furno was visibly anxious. He tried rather poorly to hide it, but Zero could see him shifting from foot to foot every so often and the thin sheen of perspiration that had formed on his brow.

Unable to see -and feel- his friend's anxiety anymore, Zero reached over and placed paw on his shoulder in a comforting gesture. "It will be okay, Furno."

Furno shot his friend a grateful look. Zero could feel Furno's anxiousness go down a little, but it did not go away completely. Zero hoped beyond hope that Mystic would report back negative so Furno could see his parents, if only to end his fear. And as if answering his wishes, Mystic spoke up.

"I cannot sense any with malcontent within the household or within the village proper," she reported. Furno gave an audible sound of relief, but Mystic ignored him. "However, that is not to say that there is no one. Psychic types at a high enough level are able to fool my senses as well as some dark types."

"Hmm," Stride pondered. He glanced down at Furno, taking note of the clear desperation on his face. "I say we proceed with caution. Mystic, Dusty, I want you two stay here and keep watch. Dusty, I want you underground so you can detect any shifts in the earth in case any enemies are hiding below us. Mystic, I want you to contact me through telepathy should you sense anything. If there is someone there, we don't want them to find all of us."

"Understood," Mystic and Dusty replied in unison.

"Furno, Zero, Quill, you four are with me," Stride said, turning to the remaining three Pokémon.

"Understood," the trio chorused, Furno slightly more enthusiastically than the other two.

"Then let's move out," Stride said and the quartet stealthily exited the forest and made their way towards the village.

The group made sure to stay semi-low to the ground as there was very little cover other than the tall grasses between them and the village. As they drew neared, they found good fortune as there didn't appear to be any Pokémon out and about in the streets, despite it being mid-afternoon. They slowly made their way to the house with the smoking chimney. Once their, Stride gestured for Furno to knock all while keeping an eye out.

Taking a deep breath, Furno stepped forward and up to the door. He raised his hand to knock, hesitated, and glanced back at the three behind him. Stride was looked around, not really paying attention to him while Zero and Quill were both sending him looks of encouragement. Smiling, Furno took another deep breath before knocking smartly on the door.

A second passed. Then another and another. Nothing.

Furno began to get discouraged. He raised his fist to knock again when the sounds of something falling and light cursing reached his ears. He took a step back as footsteps encroached towards the door before it swung open, revealing a large male bipedal ape.

The Pokémon had brown fur, a matching tail, and white fur coming from his torso, head, and feet with golden swirls over the chest area. The Pokémon had blue digits, large ears, and a red protrusion above its eyes that resembled a brow or half mask. Golden shoulder pads that were stylized as swirls, and a similar charm on its left hand. The most notable trait, however, that the being in front of them had was the pillar of flame that grew from the top of its head.

The Pokémon looked at the group with narrowed eyes. His gaze swept over those in front of him with this slightly untrusting yet curious until his gaze landed on Furno. The Pokémon frowned for a second, as if he were trying to remember something, before their eyes widened and he gave an audible gasp.

"Furno?" he asked, his voice slightly above a whisper.

"Hey Dad," Furno responded, his eyes slightly watering. Furno then pulled out the scratched golden charm and held it out to the larger Pokémon. "I think this is yours."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

A Family Reunion

The Infernape gaped open mouthed at his son. His face displayed a patchwork of emotions that he tried to reign in, only to fail spectacularly each time he blinked. As opposed to his face, his entire body was stiff and looked as if a small gust of wind could blow him over. Even the flames on his head seemed to burn and waft at a much more sedate pace.

Furno, by that point, was growing visibly nervous and self conscious. "Uh, look. I know you're probably mad that I ran away like that and I wouldn't blame you since I probably caused you to worry and possibly think I died or something..." Furno was rambling at that moment, as his nervousness grew with each passing moment of silence from his father. When his father still didn't talk, Furno just kept prattling on.

"I-I know you probably don't want me here..." Furno's throat seemed to close at the prospect of rejection. He swallowed thickly before continuing. "B-But e-even if you don't want me anymore, I wanted to make sure-"

Furno was cut off by the Infernape crashing to his knees and enveloping the young fire type in his arms. Furno's eyes widened in shock as he felt him pulled into a tight hug. He felt something wet drip onto his shoulder and he knew that his father was crying.

"Don't you dare..." the Infernape muttered, causing Furno to stiffen. "Don't you dare think that I could ever not want you!"

As soon as those words were said, the floodgates were opened. Furno completely broke down in his fathers arms, abandoning the charm in favor of clutching him like a lifeline. Tears poured down the fire type's face as he cried out all of his guilt, sadness, and happiness all at once, trying to convey these very feelings into his hug. The Infernape seemed to understand as his grip tightened and his tears increased.

The trio behind the reunited pair watched on with smiles on their faces, happy to see the young Chimchar that they had known for so long happy. Zero in particular was extremely happy for his friend. Furno had confided in him his thoughts regarding his family, how he felt guilty over leaving and how he feared that they would disown him should he ever return to them. The former human truly was happy that his friend.

Zero's smile fell a second later when a tiny flicker of emotion popped up on his radar. After training with Monty, and reluctantly using the few lessons Orion gave him on the matter, Zero had developed an almost passive level of emotion sense. At any given moment, as long as he was at least somewhat aware, he could sense the emotions of all those around him in a thirty yard radius. Sixty if he focused hard enough. He also was able to 'muffle' the emotions he sensed as too no go completely insane with his constant use of his emotion sense.

Frowning slightly, Zero full immersed himself in his aura sense and focused on the two fire types. He sensed happiness, shock, elation, a small amount of disbelief, all the things that he would expect from such a scene, but there was one other emotion that didn't make sense to the young Riolu. He felt fear, and not from Furno.

The fear was coming from the Infernape.

Zero narrowed his eyes at the larger Pokémon. _Why would he be feeling fear?_ he asked himself. _Is he afraid that Furno will leave again? Or is it something else...?_

Another voice calling from inside the house brought Zero out of his thoughts, "Sol? Is everything alright? Who's at the door?"

Stepping into the doorway was another Infernape, this one a female. She saw the Greninja, Quilladin, and Riolu first and was about to question them when she saw her husband on the ground. "SOL! What happened?! Are you o-" Her gaze landed on Furno as he began to look up and everything froze. "Furno?" she whispered tentatively, almost scared of the answer.

Furno gave her a watery smile. "Hey, Mom..."

Th second Infernape gasped, bringing both hands to her mouth. Not even a second passed before she too was on the ground, her arms added to the hug. "Oh, Furno!" she balled, gripping her son, almost tearing him away from his father. "Oh, Furno!"

"Mom...I'm sorr-" She placed a finger on his lips to silence him.

"You have nothing to apologize for," she said, trying her best to stem the flow of tears spilling down her face. "All that matters is that you're here now."

Furno's eyes widened before a fresh wave of tears began to flow. He hugged his parents with renewed vigor, wailing in pure happiness over their acceptance. The two Infernape just held their son as he cried, whispering soothing words into his ear.

After a bout ten minutes of crying, the chimp Pokémon seemed to be tapped out. He managed to hiccup himself into a relative state of calm. He slowly pulled away from the two Infernape, only about five feet so that he could look them both in the eye. "Do you really forgive me?" he asked, his voice barely over a whisper.

"Of course we do," his mother said.

"No matter what you do, nothing would ever stop us from loving you," his father added.

Furno looked at them with big, red, searching eyes, looking at their faces for any sign of deceit. Deciding that the two fire-fighting types were being truthfully, he leapt at them with renewed sobs and clutched them tightly.

This time, it only took two minutes for Furno to calm down, he backed away again, his cheeks aflame. "Sorry..."

"You have nothing to be sorry about, little flame," his mother said, wiping away her own tears, causing Furno blush even harder. "I'm just so glad you're okay."

"I'm not going to lie to you, Furno. I didn't think you'd respond to my request," his father said in a slightly sheepish way.

All of the quartet was surprised by this, though Stride his his well, however, it was Furno that spoke. "Y-You sent the mission request?"

"Yes. I figured it would be the best way to get your attention," the male Infernape explained. "What with you being part of the resistance and all..."

"I guess that makes sense..." Furno mumbled before his eyes lit up in realization. He quickly retrieved the charm that he had dropped during his breakdown and presented it to his father. "Here's your charm!"

"Thank you," his father said gratefully. He took the small gold charm and placed it on his hand where it seemed to stick. He let out a sigh of relief as the familiar weight press against his hand. "You have no idea how good it is to have this back. I felt bald without it."

Furno giggled at his father's antics while his wife gave a short, "Dear", smacking his arm as she did so.

"How'd you know he was part of the resistance?" Stride asked suddenly. Furno physically jumped, obviously forgetting that it wasn't just his parents with him. His father, stood up straighter and eyed the Greninja with a curious yet cautious look.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" he asked.

"Oh! That's Stride," Furno piped up. "The other two are my teammates, Zero and Quill."

"Hello," Quill greeted brightly.

Zero nodded his head and smiled warmly at the two Infernape.

Stride's expression remained the same. He stared at the Infernape, unblinking with a blank mask. He just stared silently before he repeated, "How did you know he was part of the resistance?"

The Infernape narrowed his eyes slightly at the senior resistance member. Both Quill and Zero tensed not sure of what was about to happen but wanting to be prepared. Furno was looking between his father and Stride nervously, afraid that a fight would break out.

The two larger Pokémon stared down the other, the tension mounting with every passing second. Just when the tension was about to reach its peak, and a fight seemed to be emanate, the Infernape broke it. "A resistance member told me."

"A resistance member broke the confidentially agreement and willing gave information on a fellow member?" Stride questioned, a dangerous edge in his voice.

"You mustn't be angry with them. It was our fault that he told us," he said quickly. "When Furno disappeared, we had no where to turn. We were desperate to find him. We searched everywhere for him during all time of day. There were even nights were we went without sleep just so we could search longer."

Furno visibly winced as he heard what his parents went through when he ran away, though only Zero seemed to notice. Furno's mother came up behind her husband and hugged him as he continued to speak. "We asked every Pokémon that came through the town if they had seen him. Chimchar are uncommon in these parts, so we had hoped that someone would have seen him, but no such luck. We were beginning to lose hope until a member of the resistance came to the village to complete a mission. They seemed to take pity on us and confessed that a Chimchar had joined their division."

"We knew that it was a long shot, but if there was even the slightest chance that Furno was part of the Latios Division, then we had to try," his wife continued. "We created the request and had it sent to the Chimchar and their team and...here you all are."

"I see," Stride said tonelessly. "Then I apologize for my accusation. Secrecy is highly stressed in the resistance. We can't afford any leaks or spies among our ranks."

"It's perfectly fine," the male reassured with a friendly smile. "You were just doing your job. I cannot fault you for that. How about we start over?" He held out his hand for the Greninja to shake. "My name is Sol. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Stride looked at the hand for a second before he reached out and shook it. "I am Stride and the pleasure is all mine."

"And this is my wife, Cinder," he said, gesturing to his wife who stepped forward.

"It is nice to meet you," she said, raising her hand.

"And you," Stride said, grasping her hand and brushing his lips across the flat of her hand.

"Oh, a gentleman," she said with a slight blush coloring her face.

Stride smiled. "I may be a soldier, but I have manners."

Cinder nodded her head in acceptance and turned to Zero and Quill. "I take it that you two are part of my little flame's team?"

"Moooom," Furno whined in embarrassment, earning snickers from Quill and Zero, though Zero did a better job at covering his.

"That's right, Ma'am," Zero answered when he recovered from his laughter.

"Cinder is fine, dear," she said serenely. "Ma'am makes me sound old. I must say, I didn't know that the resistance recruited Pokémon so young."

"Typically we don't. These three, however, are exceptions," Stride said. "These three are practically prodigies in their own right and were able to form a team earlier than others, despite their age. You should be very proud of your son. He is very strong in his own right, even without his Ikari Flame."

Furno ducked his head at the praise, feeling rather bashful now that he was being praised in front of his parents. His parents' smiles seemed to grow rather strained however.

"Be that as it may, don't you think that children should not get involved with the current state of affairs?" Cinder asked.

 _That didn't stop you from trying to send him to the emperor's forces!_ Zero thought rather angrily, but held his tongue as he did not want to come off offensive.

"I do believe that," Stride said, gaining shocked looks from the young team. "However, in times like these, such luxuries are impossible to obtain. It is all we can do to train them young so that they will be able to fight should the need arise.

Cinder pursed her lips. "So you would turn them into soldiers?"

Stride raised his brow at that. "Is that not what you intended to do to him when you were about to send him off to the emperor."

It became dead silent. Not even the wind dared to blow.

Everyone watched wide eyed and horrified as a look of fury came over the female flame Pokémon's face. "We had no intention of turning out son into a soldier. We were only sending him so he could learn to control his Ikari Flame without causing harm to the village!"

"Be that as it may, the emperor's intention towards your son was, and still are, less than noble. He wishes to bring your son to his side and turn him into yet another mindless minion," Stride said grimly.

"And how do you know that?" she demanded, now glaring openly at the water-dark type. "How do you know that the emperor would do that?"

"Because that is what the emperor does," Stride said simply, his stony gaze never faltering.

Cinder looked like she was about to argue, but stopped when Sol placed a hand on her shoulder. "Please, Cinder. We didn't call them here to fight. We called them so we could speak with out son." Cinder gave her fellow Infernape a furious look, but deflated at the sternness and desperation present in her partner's eyes.

"I'm sorry for that," Sol apologized. "We both can be...rather defensive when our child is involved. I'm sure you can understand."

"I understand completely," Stride said, bowing his head. "Children are a precious thing in our world. It is only natural that, as a parent, you would want what was best for your child."

"Thank you," Sol said. "If...If it wouldn't be too much trouble, could we talk to Furno alone? It's nothing against you personally. It's just..."

"You want to spend quality time with your son," Stride finished, earning a nod from the Infernape. "That is fine. We'll take a walk around town while you talk."

Furno looked a little conflicted. He obviously wanted to speak with his family, but he didn't like the idea of just abandoning his team. Stride, however, was quick to banish his fears.

"Don't worry," he assured. "We'll just be walking around. If you need us, just give a shout. We'll be back in fifteen minutes."

"That seems fine," Sol said, turning to his wife who was already ushering Furno into the house.

Furno glanced over his shoulder and locked eyes with Zero, silently asking him if this was okay. Zero smiled and nodded his head reassuringly, telling him that it was okay to spend time with his family. Furno smiled back and entered the house as the door closed, leaving the trio alone.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Zero asked, his smile falling and becoming a look of worry.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Stride said as he lead them into the village.

"But what if he decides to stay?" Stride stopped and turned to face the Riolu.

"Then that is his choice." At Zero's almost mutinous look, Stride continued, "Zero, I cannot tell you if Furno will stay or not. As I said, that is his choice. We cannot influence that. However, if he does decide to stay, we must continue as if nothing has happened."

"But-"

"Zero," Stride cut him off with a stern tone. "As a member of the resistance, and the leader of Team Dawn Breaker, you have an obligation to help other Pokémon and fight against the emperor's tyranny. You must do this, with or without Furno."

Zero seemed crestfallen at that. He had only joined the resistance because of Furno. Because he had no other place to go. Without Furno by his side...it just wouldn't be the same.

Stride saw the gloomy look on his charge's face and his expression softened. "It is what Furno would want, should he not return."

Zero looked up at the Greninja and nodded minutely. "Okay."

Stride could tell from the emanation Pokémon's tone that he was still reluctant to accept this, but chose to ignore it. He knew that it would be hard on the former human, but he would pull through eventually. Resistance teams lost member all the time for various reasons and while it hurt at first, they would eventually get over it.

"Come on, Zero!" Quill exclaimed, slinging an arm over Zero's shoulder. "This is Furno we're talking about. He'll come back with us! Just wait and see!"

Zero smiled gratefully at his teammate, though it didn't quite meet his eyes. He glanced back at the house where they had just left his friend and couldn't shake that heavy weight of impending loss from his stomach.

-Resistance-

Furno's parents had lead him through the familiar hallway into the sitting room. It was just like he remembered. The cushioned chairs and love seat sat adjacent to the staircase that lead to the upper floor which housed his and his parents rooms. Along the walls were bookshelves filled with not only books, but also a plethora of senseless baubles that his parents had collected in their youth. Hanging on the wall just above the love seat was a painting of two Infernape holding a small and wailing Chimchar.

Furno remembered when that picture had been painted. He was very young then, but his memory of that day was clear. It was hot and muggy then and a young(er) Furno was in an especially cranky mood. His parents had scheduled a time to get a family portrait from a traveling Smeargle who would be leaving that evening. Fifteen minutes into the painting, Furno had started wailing like Giratina himself was after him and nothing the two Infernape did could calm him. In the end, they just had the Smeargle paint him crying and that was that. The painting was a never ending source of embarrassment for the fire type, but his parents loved it. They said that it was 'natural', whatever _that_ meant.

A bittersweet smile crept over the chimp Pokémon's face as he remembered that day. He wished he could go back to a time where he would be blushing furiously as his parents relentlessly teased him about the picture. He longed to feel the embarrassment that he loathed at the time instead of in his current situation: sitting awkwardly across from his parents trying to look anywhere else.

Time passed on at a Slugma's pace, the ticking of the old and partially decaying clock on the wall becoming almost deafening in the silence. Furno glanced up once or twice to gauge how his parents were feeling, but quickly lowered his gaze when he saw his parents staring right at him.

 **Tick**

Furno fiddled with his hands in a nervous fashion, wondering why his parents weren't saying anything.

 **Tick**

He idly swung his legs back and forth, unable to touch the floor with his small legs. He really wished that his parents would just say something.

 **Tick**

 _Why aren't they saying anything?_ he asked as he began to tap his fingers anxiously.

 **Tick**

He was almost mauling his own lip at the intensity he was biting it.

 **Tick**

Sweat was practically pouring down his face as he continued to fidget anxiously. He could barely take the silence any longer.

 **Tick**

He couldn't stand the silence any longer and blurted out, "I'm sorry!"

His parents looked taken aback by his sudden outburst, but he wasn't finished. "I'm sorry I left and joined the resistance. I know that you want to talk me into leaving, but I can't! I just can't leave, not after everything I've been through, after everything I've seen..."

They still have not said anything and Furno took it as a green light to continue. "When I first joined the resistance, it was partially out of spite towards you, but it's become so much more than that," he said, looking at his hands. "We've- _I've_ helped others, the team and I. And I mean really help Pokémon, not like running errands for villagers. We've rescued Pokémon from mystery dungeons, we've taken down outlaws, we've...brought items to those who request them." He blushed marginally at the last one, but quickly shakes it off. "The point is that I've been helping Pokémon, I've been doing good in this world instead of just sitting back and doing nothing. Not only that, but I've seen first hand the state of the world.

"I've seen cities enslaved, constantly living in fear of their oppressors, fearing that their children would be taken from them, never to be returned. I've seen it all." He looked up and for the first time since entering the house looks his parents in the eye. "I have helped some of them, but there are still so many that are in pain and I can't leave them like that. I can't leave the world like that..."

Furno closed his eyes, thinking back to all the towns and cities that he has been to and the pain and hardship they've been put through because of the emperor. He felt determination build up inside him, fueling his inner flame which ran through his very veins, filling him with warmth. "So you see, I can't leave the resistance, not when there is still so much suffering. I would never be able to forgive myself if I were to leave them all to suffer, not if I have the power to help them. So please...please don't make me leave the resistance!"

Furno sat there, his eyes hidden behind tightly scrunched eyelids. He waited for the impending voice that would either bless him or damn him to a fate he longed for. His mind was made up about returning to the resistance, but he wanted-no, he _needed_ his parents blessing. He needed them to tell him that they understood and would not try to keep him from it. He needed that reaffirmation from his parents that he was doing the right thing.

When the silence persisted, Furno couldn't stand it any longer. He opened his eyes and looked at his family with a desperate look. "Please, say something! Anything!"

Furno was physically fighting back his mounting tears as he gazed at his parents pained and conflicted expressions. After a few seconds, his father opened his mouth to speak. "Furno...we understand where you're coming from, but I think I speak for both of us when I say, we don't like you being part of the resistance."

Furno felt his heart drop to his stomach. "Wh-Wh-What?"

"We understand that you want to help others, heck, you always wanted that, but we believe that the resistance isn't the best place for that," his father explained.

"If you want to help people, I'm sure that there are more...reputable ways of doing that," his mother added.

Furno's brows creased at the implication. "What do you mean by that?"

The two Infernape looked at each other, seemingly silently thinking of ways to explain their position to their son. Finally, Sol spoke up again. "Well...the resistance doesn't exactly have the best reputation among the rest of Lyore."

Furno felt his hackles raise in anger. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, I'm sure they've sugar coated things with you being their, but the resistance is not as good as you make it out to be," his mother spoke then.

Furno gritted his teeth to keep himself from snapping at his mother who continued, seemingly not noticing her son's growing anger.

"Sure they have beaten their fair share of outlaws and 'helped' other Pokémon, but that just makes them outlaws. Only helping others for the reward."

"That's not true..." Furno muttered, but it went unheard.

"Not only that, but they've been attacking innocent soldiers in towns and taking them over for their own gain."

"They were _liberating_ them."

"Just a few months ago, they took over Glaucuous Town in the east. Many citizens were grievously harmed in the assault and their were rumors of brutality against the citizens after the fact being reported. Apparently they started holding citizens prisoner in their own city."

"That was the emperor's forces..."

"It's horrific the things the resistance has been doing and I don't want you taking any part in that," she continued, not even hearing her son. "I'm sure they are keeping you shielded from these happenings, but the resistance is not doing good, they are only taking over like a disease until the collapse our government and overthrow the emperor! The emperor is the one truly helping the Pokémon of Lyore!"

Furno's balled his hands into tight fists and ground his teeth together in silent fury at each word, each lie she spoke. He wanted to make her stop, to get her to stop spouting such lies about the ones trying to save Lyore, but she kept going. "It is the emperor and his soldiers that are helping this land. _They_ are the ones that are protecting the us all from the usurpers that are plaguing Lyore."

 _Wrongwrongwrongwrong!_ Furno thought furiously, biting his tongue to stop himself from shouting.

"If you really want to help others, than you should join the emperor." Something in Furno snaps at that. "While neither of us want you out in harms way, we know that you will never be satisfied unless you're helping others, so we believe that joining the the regimen will do you good."

Furno couldn't believe what he was hearing. The rage he had felt was completely gone and in its place was horror. Horror not only that his parents were telling him to join the emperor, but that they truly believed that the emperor was doing good in Lyore.

"Hey, you can even get in their good graces by giving them information on the resistance!" Furno's father suddenly added. "You've been living at one of their divisions for the last few months, surely you know a thing or to that could be helpful to the emperor. He'd surely let you join if you gave him that kind of information."

Furno had a look of disgust on his face at the mere mention of betraying the resistance. At betraying his friends. He would never do such a thing! He felt physically ill a that moment. But again, his expression seemed to be overlooked.

"If you're worried about your friends, I'm sure they could join as well," his mother said, as if this would make everything better. "You'd just have to tell them the truth about the resistance. I'm sure they'd understand and stand by you, they seem like nice boys..."

Furno feels physically ill. His parents sound almost deranged with their words. They speak as if the matter is already solved and that he would join the emperor and be off saving the world like some superhero! It sickened him.

"I'm sure that once you join, everything will become clear and you'll realize that you've made the right choice," his father said, oblivious to the Chimchar's disgust. "They even have a station not far from here that you can stay at so you can visit us whenever you want!"

"Don't worry, my little flame, the emperor can help you," his mother said, smiling sweetly at her son. "You'll see that the resistance for what it really is and-"

"You're wrong."

His mother paused at that. "What was that?"

"I said you're wrong!" Furno growled angrily.

Both Infernape seemed to be taken aback by their son's sudden hostility. "Furno we..." his father began, only to be cut off.

"YOU'RE WRONG!" Furno roared, causing his parents to jump in surprise. "You're wrong about the resistance!"

"Furno!" his mother scolded, but Furno ignored it.

"Everything you said..." he began, "everything you said about them...it's not true! They aren't just a bunch of bounty hunters, they aren't villains trying to take over Lyore... They're all heroes, fighting to end the suffering caused by the emperor!"

"You don't know what you're talking about," his father said.

"No, _you_ don't!" the young fire type snapped. "Glaucuous Town, the city you said the resistance took over? They didn't take it over. They _freed_ it from the soldiers that were oppressing the citizens!"

"Furno," his father began slowly, "the emperor and his regimen weren't the ones oppressing them, the resistance was and still are."

"You're wrong," Furno denied, shaking his head violently. "You're wrong, you're wrong, yourewrong, yourewrongyourewrongyourewrong!"

"Furno..."

"No! You'd know anything about what happened there so don't act like you do!"

"And you do?" his mother questioned doubtfully. "Why are you so adamant that we're wrong when _you_ don't have proof of what happened?"

"I have proof..."

"Oh? And what, pray tell, is this 'proof'?" she asked. She probably doesn't mean to sound condescending, but it burns Furno up inside all the same.

"Because I was there."

Everything became quiet. A chilling air seems to move through to room, freezing the fire types' mouths shut. Even the clock seemed to have lost its **tick** as nothing is able to break the silence.

"I was there in Glaucuous Town, before and during the fight," Furno said after a few seconds of silence. "I saw the fear and pain that the citizens felt day in and day out. I saw what the soldiers did to them. To the children." An image of Koda flashed through his mind, causing that burning ember to flare out with anger. "I've seen what the emperor does to Pokémon under him, hell, it was us that found the citizens that were imprisoned in the catacombs. They were put there by the emperor's soldiers!"

His parents frown. "I'm sure you were mistaken-"

"I'M NOT MISTAKEN!" he shouted angrily, his outside flame burst and glowed ominously. Red began to creep into the Chimchar's eyes as his rage began to fuel him. Both his parents gained looks of horror and fear at their son. Just when it looked like Furno was going to explode, he took a deep breath, his flames reseeding to their normal state, and his eyes returning to normal. He took a few more seconds to calm himself and stared at both of his parents, trying to convey his thoughts and emotions to them. To try and get them to understand. "The resistance isn't evil. The emperor is. He's the one hurting Lyore and the resistance is trying to stop it. Please, you have to believe me."

Both his parents just sat their, still looking somewhat fearful over Furno's partial transformation. The looked at each other, seeming to have a silent conversation. This went on for several tense minutes.

"I was afraid of this," his mother said, finally breaking the silence with a broken sounding voice.

"What are you talking about?" Furno asked, suddenly feeling cautious.

"We knew that it was a possibility," his father said to her, either not hearing or ignoring Furno's question.

"But I didn't want it to be true!" his mother cried.

Furno was now very confused. It sounded like they were coming to terms with what he had just told them and they were reluctantly seeing that the emperor was bad, but something seemed...off.

"They really did it," the female Infernape muttered to herself. "They really did this to my baby..."

"Who did what to me?" Furno demanded.

"He said that it was likely what happened," her spouse said soothingly.

That rose alarm bells for Furno. "Who's _he_?"

Both his parents finally turned to him, their eyes burning with the same pain that any parent would have if told their child had a deadly illness.

"Mom? Dad?" Furno asked warily. "What's going on?"

-Resistance-

Back outside, the remaining trio were currently walking around the eerily silent village. Zero and Quill were quietly conversing to one another about meaningless things, though Stride noticed that the young Riolu was almost constantly looking around at what was around them. Stride was inwardly proud of the young leader's cautiousness. He knew all too well how badly things could go if an entire team was caught off guard and a silent village like this practically screamed ambush. Yet nothing has happened.

Stride himself, while also glancing around for any sign of danger, was in deep thought. He kept replaying the conversation he had with the two Infernape and something about them rubbed him the wrong way. He must have been blatant with his conflicting thoughts and how they affected him because it wasn't long until Zero picked up on his conflicted emotions.

"Stride? Are you okay?" Zero asked worriedly.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm fine," Stride reassured with a forced smile. "Just thinking."

"About what?" Quill asked curiously.

Stride hesitated for a second, inwardly debating if he should share his thoughts. "...About Furno's family."

Zero gave him a curious look, seemingly attempting to gauge something from the Greninja. Quill on the other hand jumped excitedly.

"Yeah, they were pretty nice," he chirped. "They seemed a little hesitant about the resistance, but they probably just worried for Furno."

"But that's just it," Stride said. "They knew about the resistance. That shouldn't be possible."

"They said a resistance member told them," Zero pointed out, though Stride noticed a flicker of doubt in his eye.

"Yes, they did," Stride concurred, "but as you know, we are not supposed to reveal _anything_ about the bases or ones that reside within them for fear of that information getting to the emperor."

"Well, maybe that resistance member felt bad for them," Quill reasoned. "I mean, you saw how they were. They were desperate to find their son. I honestly might have caved if I saw someone like that."

"While that may be true, there is still something that does not add up," Stride said. "They mentioned the division's name."

"So? The one that told them probably told them," Quill said, unconvinced.

"That is impossible," Stride said evenly. "Go ahead. Try and say the name of our division."

Quill gave the Greninja a curious look. Not understanding what the Greninja was talking about, Quill shrugged and opened his mouth to speak.

Only no sound escaped his lips.

Quill's eyes widened in shock. He tried again and again to say their division, but found himself unable to utter it. "Wh-What the heck!"

"What's wrong with him?" Zero asked, looking slightly worried for his friend.

"There's nothing wrong with him," Stride answered. "He just can't speak the name of our division."

"How? Why?" Quill asked, completely flabbergasted.

"You're resistance badges," Stride said. Both Quill and Zero pulled out their badges in confusion, prompting Stride to continue. "The stone in the center, while lighting up with the color of your inner aura also posses a very deeply embedded psychic suggestion that makes whoever is bonded with it unable to speak the name of the division they are part of."

"That's insane!" Quill said, staring at his badge as if he expected it to start talking.

"But then," Zero began, "How would Furno's parents know the name of our division?"

"I don't know," Stride confessed, glancing back the way they came.

-Resistance-

"Mom? Dad? What's going on?" Furno repeated. He had stood from his chair and backed away slightly, feeling an intense sense of unease at his parents expressions.

"He told us that this may have happened to you," his father said softly.

"Who are you talking about?!" Furno growled out angrily, annoyed by his parents not answering his questions.

"He told us that the resistance would do this to you," his mother said unhelpfully, further angering the Chimchar. "He said the resistance would do this to you!"

"What are you talking about?!" Furno demanded, his patience reaching its end.

His mother looked at him dead in the eyes. Furno flinched when he saw the heartbreak and devastation burning in her eyes. "They brainwashed you. The resistance brainwashed my baby!"

Furno blanched, not expecting that response. "What?"

"Furno, don't be scared," his father said, approaching him slowly. As if he were approaching a wild Pokémon. "The resistance had brainwashed you. They've made you see things that weren't true. They've manipulated you into thinking the emperor is evil."

"Th-That's not true!" Furno said, his mind reeling from what his parents were saying. His father got closer and he backed away instinctively.

"Furno, please believe us," his mother pleaded. "You're not right. The resistance...they did this to you. They made you like this, but we can help you. He can help you."

"Who are you talking about?" Furno asked. It was then the sound of footsteps descending the stairs reached his ears.

He turned slowly to the staircase and saw a horribly familiar face walk around the corner.

"Oh, no," he whispered in horror.

Aster grinned evilly. "Oh, yes."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Ambush

"What is he doing here?!" Furno demanded, half out of anger and half out of fear.

"Come now, little Furno," Aster cooed, "is that any way to act towards your guests?"

"Mom! Dad! You can't trust this guy!" Furno exclaimed, casting a desperate glance towards his parents while not completely turning his gaze away from the Gallade. "He's bad news. He's attacked and killed a _lot_ of resistance members and-"

"We know," his father interrupted.

Furno paused. "What?"

"We know, Furno," his mother said as she stepped next to her husband and grasped his arm. "We know the things he has done."

"Try to understand," his father implored. "What the soldiers have done, we don't like it, but these are difficult times. Sometimes such things are necessary."

"No, you don't understand!" Furno wanted to tear his fur out in frustration. They just didn't understand. "He is _evil_. The emperor is _evil_. The entire system of government is corrupt! The emperor and his soldiers don't help, the oppress! Especially him!"

"Furno," his mother said slowly, as if trying to talk to an infant.

"No! You don't understand!" Furno interrupted. "I've seen the things that the emperor and his _soldiers_ have done. They are not good Pokémon!"

"It is clear that the resistance has warped his mind to the point where he sees anyone affiliated with the emperor as evil," Aster interjected, sounding concerned. "It is imperative that I take him to our base to rid him of such notions."

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Furno snarled, backing even further away from the blade Pokémon.

"Furno, be reasonable," his mother pleaded. "We're all just trying to help you!"

"No! You don't understand! He's manipulating you!" Furno shouted. By that point he was looking around wildly for an escape route. Unfortunately, Aster had just moved in front of the door. He was trapped.

"We just want to help you," his father said, his voice slightly agitated yet desperate, like he truly thought that he was helping. "You're sick. The resistance has corrupted your mind and we want-no, we _need_ to help you."

"I'm not sick! I don't need help!" Furno denied, still backing up. He jolted when his back touched the wall. He had been backed into a corner!

"We won't be able to get through to him while he's like this," Aster said almost forlornly, though Furno knew better. The Gallade turned from the two Infernape and gave the Chimchar a wicked grin. "We must get him help and quick."

The two Infernape looked at each other before nodding solemnly to the Gallade and Furno felt his heart drop.

"Don't do this..." he whispered fearfully. He was desperately pleading with his eyes, hoping and praying that his parents would come to their senses.

"I'm sorry, Furno, but this is for the best," Sol said sadly, stepping back with Cinder.

"Don't worry, little Chimchar," Aster said, stepping towards the young resistance member until he was but a hair's breath away, a twisted smirk gripping his features. "All will be well."

-Resistance-

On the other side of town, where the trio of the resistance were still conversing, Zero gasped loudly. His aura sensors shot straight up as a wave of powerful emotion stabbed at his heart. He felt his body tense and quake as fear that was not his own crept into his heart. Then, just as quick as it came, the feeling of fear vanished, leaving Zero standing unsteadily on his feet.

"Zero?!" Quill said in alarm. "What's wrong?!"

The emanation Pokémon looked at him, his eyes unfocused yet still full of fear. Looking closer at the Riolu, Quill could see he had broken out in a cold sweat.

"Zero?" Stride asked worriedly.

Zero's eyes cleared and the fear that had been in his eyes, grew tenfold. "Furno," was all he muttered before he took off, using quick attack to dash down the street before either Stride or Quill could stop him.

"Zero!" Stride shouted after the Riolu. He cursed as the emanation Pokémon ran around a corner and out of sight.

"What's going on?" Quill asked worriedly.

"I fear that something has happened to Furno," Stride said grimly. "We best go after him."

"Right!" Quill said in affirmation.

The two had just started to make there way down the street when Stride suddenly lashed out, grabbed Quill's arm and threw him back. He leapt backwards just as a large projectile smashed into the ground where he once stood.

A plume of dust erupted from around the projectile, shielding it from view. As the dust began to lift, the projectile started to move. What they believed to be a projectile was in fact a large, bulky figure began to stand from the moderately sized crater they created. When the dust had fully dissipated, they could see a large cream colored bipedal with green and white arms. On its back was a cream colored armored shell with several spikes jutting out. They had a green reptilian tail that hung stiffly against the ground. Its face and part of its chest were covered in mangy white fur and its eyes appeared almost out of focus.

"A Chesnaught?" Quill asked in barely hidden awe over seeing his evolved form. "What's he doing here."

"It would appear that he's here to stop us," Stride said, slipping into a fighting stance.

Surprisingly, the Chesnaught did not appear to be threatening. He just stood there, looking past them as if he didn't even see them. Stride quirked a brow at this odd behavior, fully expecting the Chesnaught to have attacked them by now. Even so, he did not relax his guard.

"Maybe he isn't with the emperor," Quill suggested nervously. "I mean, he's not moving or anything..."

As if Quill had said the magic words, the Chesnaught leapt at them with speeds that one would not link to one of his size. In seconds, he was right in front of Quill, his arm reared back and coated with white energy.

Quill yelped in surprise and was barely able to conjure a small protect over himself. The green dome formed not a second before the glowing arm smashed into it. While not breaking through, the strength behind the blow was enough to push the dome back a little bit and leave a decent sized crack.

Before the Chesnaught could attack again, he was kicked in the face by Stride and blasted back by a torrent of high-pressured water. The large spiny armor Pokémon, didn't look fazed from the strong water attack. In fact, as Stride noticed, the Chesnaught's blank expression had not changed in the slightest.

"Holy Arceus, this guy's tough!" Quill exclaimed, dropping his protect.

"Something's up with him," Stride said, eyes firmly focused on their enemy. "His eyes are blank and his expression hasn't changed at all."

"That's creepy," Quill commented.

"Don't let your guard down even for a second," Stride ordered as he formed a large rotating star out of water in between his hands. "We need to defeat him and get to Zero and Furno!"

"Understood," Quill responded, bringing up his fists.

The Chesnaught, his expression still empty, took that time to charge towards the duo with impressive speeds. Stride and Quill both tensed before the leapt in unison towards their enemy, determined to get to their fellow resistance members.

-Resistance-

Aster smirked to himself as he exited the two Infernape's house. It had been easy for him to manipulate the young wielder of the Ikari Flame's parents into thinking that the resistance had brainwashed their son. With their belief in the emperor, it had been mere child's play to plant the seed and set the trap to lead the Chimchar right to him. It was especially delicious to see the look of betrayal in the fire type's eyes when he realized that his parents had sold him out.

He glanced at the unconscious Chimchar slung over his shoulder and grin to himself. _The emperor shall surely be pleased with my efforts,_ he thought to himself. He heard the distant sound of an explosion and his grin grew even wider. _It appears the distraction has been set loose. That should keep Stride and the two hatchlings busy while I deliver the goods._

His ears perked up at the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps slamming against the ground. He turned his head towards the sound just in time for something blue to slam into his face.

For the first time in what felt like a long time, Aster was caught off guard. He staggered back from the hit, his cheek throbbing smartly. He felt the weight of his quarry slip of his shoulder, but he was too wrapped up in his own surprise over being caught unaware. When he finally snapped out of his stupor, he could hear a panicked voice crying out in worry.

"Furno? Furno?! Come on, say something!"

Aster turned towards the voice and almost laughed when he saw a familiar blue pup trying to rouse his friend.

"That won't work," he said nonchalantly. He pressed a hand against his cheek and felt a slight flare up at would most likely turn into a small bruise.

"What did you do to him?!" the Riolu demanded, glaring at the soldier, an act that Aster found almost cute.

"Nothing," Aster said, raising his hands in false surrender and smiling disarmingly. "I just gave him a mild sedative. He was getting hysterical and I did not want him to hurt himself. The emperor does not take kind to damaged goods." His genial smile was replaced with a wicked grin that caused the young fighting type to visibly shudder.

"You monster," the Riolu growled angrily. The young Pokémon was shaking, whether out of fear or anger, Aster did not know.

"Such hateful words," Aster said dramatically, as if the fighting type's words had hurt him. "What have I done to deserve such words!"

"You attacked my friend!"

"As I said, I just gave him a sedative. He'll wake in a day or so, leaving me plenty of time to get him to the base for his treatment."

A confused and wary expression crossed the emanation Pokémon's face. "Treatment."

"Of course," Aster responded jovially. "After all, the resistance has done such horrible things to young Furno's mind. They have made him believe that the emperor is evil and that the resistance is trying to help Lyore. That just won't due."

"Damn you..." Aster shook his head and wagged a finger at the young pup.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Such language should not be used by hatchlings such as yourself." Aster once blasé expression was replaced by an evil grin. "I guess I'll just have to punish you."

The young jackal tensed as if preparing for a fight. Aster had to physically restrain himself from laughing at the Riolu's attempt at putting on a brave face. Even from where he was he could see the young fighting type was shaking. Aster's grin widened as he could practically smell the fear wafting off the hatchling before him. Taking pity on the Riolu, Aster decided to throw him a bone, so to speak.

"I'll tell you what. I'll let your course language slide if you surrender young Furno to me."

"What?" the hatchling said, appearing to be taken aback by the sudden offer. Aster rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

"If you let me take the Chimchar back with me, without interfering in any way, I will let you leave here in one piece," Aster said in an almost bored tone.

A look of disgust flashed over the Riolu's features before his fighting stance deepened. "I won't let you take him!"

Aster sighed. _Of course he's one of those_ self-righteous _types,_ he internally groaned. _Oh well, I tried._

"Fine, if that's the way you want it," Aster began, uncrossing his arms and letting them hang by his sides with a deceptively relaxed looking posture. "then I will have to take him by force."

The young red-eyed gulped in obvious fear, but determination burned in his eyes. It was clear that he was afraid, but he was a stubborn one.

Aster sighed once more. _Why can't things ever be simple?_

-Resistance-

Quill grunted as he blocked the Chesnaught's giant fist with his arm. The force of hit sent the young grass-fighting type skidding across the ground, his arm jolting with pain. The Chesnaught rushed towards him, but was smashed into the ground when Stride jumped right on his head with incredible force. Stride then leapt off the bulky Pokémon just as two vines emerged from the sides of the Chesnaught's neck and attempted to grab him. Having missed their target, the vines, seemingly on their own, shot into the air after the ninja frog.

Stride, as if sensing the encroaching vines, flipped in the air and fired two water shuriken that cut through the vines and hurtled towards the still downed Chesnaught. The two stars of water slammed into the spiny armor Pokémon armored shell, leaving two shallow cuts in it, but otherwise did no visible damage before dispersing.

The Chesnaught got back to his feet and looked at his two opponents, neither glaring or snarling. Just looking at them with twin dead eyes. Quill was becoming increasingly unnerved by the Chesnaught's lack of response.

"What is this guy?" he panted. "We keep hitting him, but he acts like he doesn't even feel it! It's starting to creep me out!"

"Yes, it is rather disturbing," Stride admitted, not taking his eyes off their enemy. "He acts more puppet than Pokémon. Like someone else is controlling him."

"Is that possible?" Quill questioned.

"Unfortunately, yes," Stride answered grimly. "Such a thing can be done by an exceptionally powerful psychic type. If strong enough, a psychic type can basically put a Pokémon's conscious to sleep. Like that, a Pokémon is nothing more than an empty husk that can only act when given an order. This is most likely what's going on with this Chesnaught. It would also explain why Mystic couldn't sense him in the village."

"That sounds like what Morpheus was doing!" Quill said, thinking of the Musharna they had encountered not too long ago.

Stride nodded his head. "Similar, but Morpheus could only control others through their dreams. This is something stronger..."

Apparently the Chesnaught had gotten tired of waiting as the spikes on his shell began to glow a florescent green. With a flex, the Chesnaught launched a wave of pin missiles at the duo. Both Quill and Stride were forced to jump back in order to avoid the glowing needles.

Unperturbed by his attack missing, the Chesnaught lumbered towards them with startling speed. A green aura erupted around his arm, taking the form of a large log as he ran towards them. He then swung his arm at Stride, but the nimble Pokémon leaned back, causing the arm to whiff over him. Before the Chesnaught could recover, Stride kicked him in the face. The Chesnaught stumbled back, more out of surprise than actual pain, but it gave Stride enough time to jump away from the juggernaut.

Coming from the side, Quill rammed into the controlled Pokémon with a rollout attack, causing the him to teeter back. Quill skid across the ground, still in ball form, and raced back towards the Chesnaught, slamming into his back.

Quill repeated this several more times, each hit knocking the Chesnaught even more off balance. Just as he was coming in for another hit, the Chesnaught brought his arms up and a green spiky shield burst out in front of him. Unable to stop, Quill barreled into the spiky shield, crying out in pain as the spikes dug into his body.

He tried to back away, but the Chesnaught reached out and grabbed him by the head. Quill tried to pry the large hand off of him, but he couldn't even hope to match the larger Pokémon's strength. With almost little effort, the Chesnaught hurled the poor Quilladin towards a nearby building. With a large crash and a small burst of dust, Quill slumped to the ground, dazed.

The Chesnaught made to continue his assault on his prior form when a dark pulse slammed into his side. "You're fight's with me!"

The Chesnaught turned towards Stride and lumbered towards him instead. A bright light engulfed the Chesnaught's clenched fist as he swung towards the water-dark type. Immediately recognizing the attack as a focus punch, Stride jumped straight up to avoid the attack.

In the air, Stride pulled his legs up as if crouching before kicking straight down, descending at a fast pace. With a powerful bounce attack, Stride slammed both his webbed feet into the Chesnaught's head, once more causing the behemoth to crash into the ground, before jumping back to gain more distance.

Having recovered and seeing the Chesnaught on the ground, Quill got back to his feet and charged at the downed Pokémon. White energy grew around his hand as prepared to use brick break. Just as the Quilladin was about o bring his attack down on the back of the Pokémon's head, he saw something at the base of the Chesnaught's neck. Something that made him freeze in his place.

"It can't be..."

"Quill! What are you waiting for?!" Stride shouted. "Do it!"

The Greninja's words fell upon deaf ears as the energy that once covered the Quilladin's hand faded away. The smaller spiny armor Pokémon just stood there gobsmacked as the Chesnaught rose to his feet.

"It can't be," Quill repeated, his eyes the size of dinner plates.

The Chesnaught regarded the Quilladin blankly before raising his arm, a familiar bright white energy engulfing his fist. Seeing it, Stride shouted, "Quill! Move!" Unfortunately, Quill appeared to not hear the older resistance member and just stood there unresisting as the glowing fist swung towards him.

With a loud crack, the focus punch made contact with Quill's face and he was flung across the street. He smashed straight into the house he had been thrown towards merely seconds ago, this time part of the building gave way and buried the young Quilladin underneath.

"Quill!" Stride shouted in both anger and worry. He made to rush towards his former student's side, but was stopped by several glowing needles that slammed right in front of him. Turning, Stride glared furiously at the Chesnaught.

"Fine then. I see how it is."

The Chesnaught's expression remained blank as the Greninja slid into a fighting stance. Stride knew that he had to help not only Quill, but also Furno and Zero and to do that he needed to defeat the juggernaut before him.

Dark purple energy coalesced in his webbed hands, forming two small blades of energy. Stride gripped his weapons tightly, glaring heatedly at his opponent. He stood there for a moment more before leaping at the Chesnaught, his blades poised to cut into the grass-fighting type.

-Resistance-

"Guh!" Zero grunted as he was thrown back like a rag doll.

"Is that really all you can do?" Aster said, sounding bored. "If it is, you should give up now because, frankly, I'm unimpressed."

"I'm not done yet," Zero growled as he struggled to his feet. For the past few minutes he had been fighting a painfully obvious one-sided battle. He threw everything he had at the taller fighting type, but he just shrugged it off like it was nothing more than a gentle breeze. Zero, on the other hand, was covered in bruises and scratches, some of which were still bleeding. The Gallade hadn't even been using any actual moves, seemingly content with punching, kicking, and cutting the Riolu with his arm blades.

"Please. Kid, you're already on your last legs and I haven't even used a single move," Aster drawled with a casual flick of his wrist. "Face it, you're out of your league."

"Shut up!" Zero shouted, anger coursing through his veins. He ran forward with quick attack and tried to ram into the blade Pokémon.

Aster just sighed as if it fighting was just an annoyance. As Zero closed in, Aster almost lazily stepped to the side, causing the Riolu to speed past him. "Predictable."

Zero skidded to a stop and spun around, his paws cloaked in shadowy energy, and swiped at the Gallade. Aster, with the same relaxed and bored demeanor, dodged each claw with very little movement.

"Now you're just embarrassing yourself," Aster commented lazily.

Before Zero could respond, Aster lunged forward in a flash of motion. Startled, Zero attempted to move back when a burst of pain erupted from his stomach. Saliva was jettisoned out of his mouth along with all the air that was in his lung. The emanation Pokémon fell forward, his mouth still opened in a silent cry of pain, but held up by Aster's still raised knee.

"You can't win," he whispered to the young Pokémon before nudging the Riolu off his knee. "Just quit while you're behind."

The young Pokémon to stumble backwards, clutching his stomach in pain. He then fell to his knees, wheezing loudly, his vision swimming. Forcing his vision to focus, he looked up at the Gallade and glared, or at least tried as he was in so much pain that it was probably more of a grimace. Either way, the psychic-fighting type was unaffected.

Getting control of his breathing, Zero once more pushed himself to his feet, stumbling slightly as he did so. Wincing slightly, Zero raised his arm straight into the air and summoned a blue wind to swirl around him. With a shout, he flung a vacuum wave at the Gallade.

Seeing the attack, Aster just scoffed. As it approached, Aster raised his own arm before bringing it down in a chopping motion onto the attack. Zero watched in horror as the Gallade cut through his attack with minimal effort. The Gallade quirked a brow as if to ask "are you done?"

 _Dammit, he's not even taking me seriously!_ Zero thought. _Looks like I have no choice..._

Zero's body tensed up as he began to pull on the energy he had left and force it outwards. As he felt his energy begin to escape him, he grabbed onto it roughly, holding it in place while still pulling more and more energy out of himself.

 _Sorry Stride,_ he thought as he made to release his hold on his energy.

Aster suddenly disappeared before reappearing directly in front of the Riolu. Before Zero could release his stored energy, Aster backhanded him across the face, sending the emanation tumbling down the dirt road.

"Now what's a kid like you," Aster began slowly, "doing knowing a move like final gambit?"

Zero barely withheld a cry as pain arched through his entire body. The Gallade's sudden attack had caused him to mess up his energy release and now his entire body felt like he had been run over by a herd of Tauros.

"That's a very powerful move," Aster continued, seemingly unconcerned with Zero's state. "If you had managed it, you might have actually done some damage."

Zero tried to push himself up, but his arms were screaming in protest. He couldn't even open his mouth to growl at the older Pokémon without crying out in pain.

"Jeez, is this what the resistance is teaching their members? Suicide moves?" Aster continued, talking more to himself than Zero. "The Chimchar, at this point, would honestly be better off coming with me."

The Gallade grinned evilly at the incapacitated Riolu. "After all, the emperor prefers that his toys don't break."

"You...won't t-take him," Zero managed to say through the pain.

"Are you serious. You still think you can stop me? Get real!" Aster stepped up to the Riolu and kicked him in the ribs, causing the Riolu to gasp in pain. Aster then reached down and gripped the fur on the top of Zero's head. Zero cried out in protest as he was lifted off the ground via his fur and brought to eye level with the Gallade.

"You are beneath me," he said darkly. "A mere _pebble_ in my path, hardly even worth noticing. There is nothing, and I mean _nothing_ that you can do that will stop me."

Zero yelped as Aster dropped him to the ground, causing his body to jolt in pain. He managed to look up at the Gallade and froze when he saw the look in the Gallade's eyes.

Unlike the bored, yet sinister, aloofness that the Gallade had in his eyes was gone. In its place was a look of pure malice. Zero found it slightly hard to breath as murderous intent washed over him, almost strangling him. Zero realized then that the opponent in front of him was different than all those he had faced in the past. All of the others he had fought, fought with the intent to render him incapable of battle, nothing more, but the Gallade...the aura he was pushing out promised a painful death to the Riolu should he continued to oppose him.

Zero tried to swallow, but found that he couldn't even do that. He was too petrified by this murderous intent. He was afraid. More afraid than he had ever been in his life, but he couldn't look away. The Gallade's eyes seemed to trap his own in place, forcing him to drown in this torturous feeling of malice.

Holding the Riolu's gaze for a few seconds longer, Aster turned away with a sneer, allowing Zero to greedily take in oxygen. "Just stay down and out of my way. You'll live longer that way."

Zero began to shiver, still feeling the effects of the Gallade's murderous aura. Cold sweat trickled down his shaking form as he did his best hold back a fearful sob. He felt like a small child afraid of their own shadow; alone and helpless to do anything.

" _Better to run and fight another day then to die._ " Mifune's words echoed through Zero's terrified mind.

 _If I keep fighting against him,_ I'll die, he thought fearfully. _If I stay down...then he'll have no reason to kill me. I would be able to get stronger and be better prepared if I face him again. All I have to do is stay down and let Aster take...Furno._

Zero looked over to his unconscious friend and saw Aster approaching him. " _Then let's make a deal. If you be my friend and help me evade the Emperor's soldiers, I'll help you with being a Pok_ _é_ _mon and try to help you figure out how to change back if you want to. Deal?_ "

Zero remembered the day he met Furno and the promise he made to Furno. His promise to help him evade the emperor. To be the Chimchar's friend.

Zero's paw curled into a tight fist.

 _I can't leave him. I promised to do my best to keep him away from the emperor!_

 _But Aster will kill you,_ another voice seemed to argue.

 _I know, but I can't just watch and do nothing!_

 _You can't fight him,_ the voice argued. _He beat you without using a single move!_

 _I don't care!_ Zero snapped at the voice, causing it to quiet down. _I can't...I_ won't _just lay here while he makes off with Furno!_

Zero's eyes burned in rage as he saw the Gallade stoop down to pick up his friend. _Even if I die...even if I die...I WON'T LET HIM TAKE MY FRIEND!_

Aster heard the sound of shifting rubble and growled lowly. "You're tenacious, I'll give you that-" He stood up, leaving the Chimchar where he was, and turned to face the Riolu. Seeing him standing Aster's face twisted into an unimpressed sneer, "but you are really trying my patience!"

Zero said nothing. He just stood their with his head bowed and arms hanging limply at his side.

"Did you fall on your head one too many times? Or are you just suicidal," Aster snarled angrily. The Riolu was really getting on his nerves. "I am giving you a free pass here! If you just stay down then I'll let you live!"

Zero still didn't respond and this infuriated Aster.

"What is your problem?!" he shouted. "Are you really about to die for this?! Does he mean that much to you."

"...yes..."

Aster was taken aback by the Riolu's voice after his silence. Aster could see that the Riolu was visibly shaking and, at first, he thought it was fear or pain, but something felt off to him. An invisible aura seemed to be emanating from the small fighting type and it was making him uneasy. He was pulled from his thoughts when Zero started talking again.

"He found me, he helped me, he gave me my name, he gave me a purpose..." As he spoke, Zero voice steadily rose until he was shouting. "He is everything to me! He's my best friend, and I WON'T LET YOU TAKE HIM!" With that, Zero dashed forward at speeds that far exceeded anything he previously displayed.

 _He's faster?!_ Aster thought in surprise as he just managed to block a shadow claw that was aimed at his throat. He winced as he felt the claws dig into his arm, sending jolts of pain through him as ghost type energy shot through him. His eyes widened even more as he felt his arm begin to be pushed back.

 _He's stronger too?! What the hell is happening?!_ Aster looked down at the little Riolu child in front of him, perplexed by how one so beaten could come back stronger than before. He was taken aback when he saw the color of the Riolu's normally red eyes had changed drastically. _His eyes..._

His thoughts were stopped when the Riolu in front of him suddenly broke away and dashed around him. Aster spun around just in time to block a second shadow claw. The two fighting types were locked in a stalemate, both trying to push the other back. Aster, still in a state of confusion over the Riolu's sudden change, didn't take notice to the blue light begin to surround the emanation Pokémon until the last second.

The blue energy shifted into a swirling mass of power that latched onto Zero's free paw. With a roar, Zero swung his fist, releasing the energy from his paw and sending it towards the blade Pokémon.

Aster managed to bring up his arms to block the sudden reversal attack, but blast pushed him back a few feet and made him unsteady. He didn't get a chance to recover before Zero was on him once again, unleashing a flurry of shadow claws.

 _His attacks have become so savage,_ Aster thought. _They're all uncoordinated and sloppy, but each strike is more brutal than the last! Could this be final gambit? No. There's not energy surrounding him and that wouldn't explain his eyes... What is this?_

Aster defended against the enraged Riolu's wild attacks the best he could, but his stance was still weak and he was constantly being pushed back as to not trip. It wasn't long before Zero got a lucky hit and was able to knock both of Aster's arms out of the way, leaving him open for an attack. _Dammit!_

Taking advantage of this, Zero quickly closed the distance between the two of them and roughly slammed his open palm into the Gallade's stomach. Aster grunted in pain before it turned to a short cry as a flash of energy erupted from Zero's paw, jettisoning him across the road and into the dirt.

With Aster on the ground, Zero raised both his arms and brought them together in front of him with his palms facing out. Energy began to coalesce in front of his paws and took the shape of a sphere that, if Zero were not so focused on the Gallade, he would have noticed that it was a different color than his previous aura sphere.

With a roar of finality, Zero shot the glowing orb straight at Aster who was just starting to push himself up. The blade Pokémon's eyes bulged at the sight of the encroaching sphere and was helpless to stop it. There met its mark and detonated, shaking the earth and blasting dust and smoke in every direction.

Panting, Zero slowly began to calm down as he could see no movement in the pillar of smoke. Suddenly feeling week, Zero collapsed to his knees, holding himself up with his arms. His vision began to swim and sweat poured down his body. He shook his head to rid himself of his disorientation, but winced as a sharp pain stabbed into his temple, indicating the start of a large headache.

Everything had gone fuzzy for the Riolu when he got to his feet. He had a hazy recollection of attacking the Gallade. He just remembered feeling incredibly angry at the thought of losing his friend to the emperor and everything had become a blur after that.

"At least whatever I did managed to take him out," Zero said aloud, pushing himself to one knee.

"Oh, I wouldn't go that far."

Zero's heart plummeted at terminal velocity at the familiar voice. Almost reluctantly, he lifted his tired eyes towards the smoke, praying that he had imagined the voice. His prayers were all for naught as a terrifyingly familiar Pokémon strode out of the smoke with hardly a scratch on him.

"I admit," Aster began, brushing dirt off of himself, "that stung a little, but it was nowhere near enough to finish the job."

Zero could only stare in horror as the Gallade stood in front of him, barely hurt. He had nothing left. Nothing left to give. He had used all of his remaining energy doing whatever it was that he did. He was barely hanging onto consciousness at that point, he was in no shape to continue fighting, but even still...

Even still, Zero would not back down.

Zero ignored his body's screams of pain as he tried to force himself to stand, only for a blinding pain the erupt from his chest.

Zero screamed in pain as he was flung back by a powerful brick break. He smashed into a building across the street and before he could fall, Aster had appeared in front of him and grabbed him by the throat.

Zero chocked as his airway was cut off. He weakly pulled at the hand around his throat and feebly kicked his legs, but could not get the blade Pokémon to relinquish their grasp.

"It was a commendable effort, but pointless in the end," Aster said, his voice holding a hint of annoyance and a microscopic bit of respect. "Though I have to say, that little trick you pulled caught me off guard. What was it?"

"What-are you talking-about?" Zero gasped out, still struggling.

"Hmm? Not going to tell me? That's fine. I don't really care either way," Aster responded, gaining a wicked glint to his eye. The arm not holding Zero became illuminated by a green light and appeared to sharpen. Aster put his blade arm right up the the Riolu's face, right under his eye. "After all, it was weaker than my power and thus inconsequential."

Aster pressed his arm against Zero's cheek and nicked it, causing a small trickle of blood to fall down his cheek. "As I told you, you were out of your league. I would have let you alone had you back off, but no. You had to be the hero, but let me tell you something-" Aster's hand tightened around Zero's throat, causing his struggles to renew, "there are no such things as heroes. In this world, there are only the strong and those who the strong step on to reach new heights and guess which you are."

Zero didn't respond, or rather couldn't. Had it not been for his fur, he would be turning blue. He gurgled pitifully, as his body went limp, all his strength fading away. Darkness began to creep into the edge of his vision as his consciousness began to leave him. Aster's form had become nothing more that a blurry outline and was soon consumed by the darkness.

"Don't worry," he heard Aster say. "After this, you won't have to worry about young Furno being all alone with the emperor."

Zero's vision darkened completely and he fell into the welcoming embrace of unconsciousness.

-Resistance-

Stride grunted in exertion as he pushed the larger Pokémon away from him before slashing at him with his night slash. The blades raked across the Chesnaught's hide, but got no outward reaction from the grass-fighting type.

Stride leapt back, preparing for another assault when the Chesnaught seemed to freeze mid attack. The Chesnaught suddenly stood straight up, his eyes no longer focusing on Stride but seemingly to the air behind him. He then turned in place and began to walk away.

"Wha- Hey, wait!" Stride exclaimed, slightly baffled. He took a step towards the retreating Pokémon when a wall of thick smoke erupted from the buildings and obscured the Chesnaught from view. When the smoke lifted, the Chesnaught was gone.

"Dammit," Stride cursed over letting the Chesnaught get away. He was about to go search for the Chesnaught when a groan and the sound of shifting rubble drew his attention. "Quill!"

Stride rushed over to where the young resistance member was trying to unbury himself. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Quill said weakly as he staggered to his feet. He glanced past the Greninja and surveyed the streets. "Where'd the Chesnaught go?"

"He escaped," Stride growled before a pensive look crossed his features. "Why'd you freeze up like that? You had a clean shot, so what stopped you?"

Quill looked down, a conflicted look passing over his face. "...he had...he had a brown mark at the base of his neck shaped like a leaf."

"I take it there is more meaning behind the mark than just an unusual birthmark?" Quill slowly nodded.

"That mark...the last time I saw it was on my brother..." Stride's eyes shot open.

"Are you positive?"

"Yeah..." Quill looked up and gave the Greninja a broken, confused, and conflicted look. "That was my brother, Crass."

Before Stride could say anything, Mystic's voice echoed through his head. " _Stride? Stride!_ "

"Mystic?" Stride said aloud. "What's wrong?"

" _Thank Arceus I got through,_ " the Meowstic responded, sounding relieved. " _I've been trying to contact you with my telepathy, but something was blocking me! Dusty and I were attacked just now!_ "

"Are you alright?!" Stride asked worriedly, ignoring Quill's confused look.

" _Yes, we're fine, just a few scratches, but that's not the problem. You need to get back to the house! It's Furno and Zero..._ "

Stride felt a pit of dread fall to his stomach. What had happened to his students?


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Locked Away

"...urk," Zero groaned.

Pain lanced through his body like a hot iron. His muscles were all crying out in agony to the point where it hurt to breath. Even his fur hurt, and that should not have been possible.

 _Ugh, what happened to me?_ Zero thought, his mind feeling sluggish. He winced when it even hurt to think. Undeterred, he tried to focus on the last thing he could remember. _Okay, I remember a letter showing up and Furno thought that it was about his parents and...I think we went to check it out, but something happened..._

As his mind began to fully awaken, so did his memories. Slowly but surely, his memories of Briarwood Village as well as the meeting of Furno's family began to take root. He recalled Furno's parents asking for time to speak to Furno alone and how they explored the village to give them time to talk. It was not long after that that he felt a wave of fear that was not his own wash over him for only second and he knew that Furno was in trouble.

Zero struggled to remember what happened next, his thoughts becoming more muddled the more he remembered. He then saw a familiar face appear in his mind and everything became clear.

 _Aster!_ He had made to speak the name aloud, but the pain kept his mouth jammed shut. _I was fighting Aster, but he beat me and...then what happened? What did he do to me?!_

Zero forced himself to calm down, knowing that panicking would get him nowhere. He squirmed slightly to try and get a feel for whatever he was lying upon, wincing as he did so. He was on his stomach, that much was clear, and it felt that his body was resting on hard stone. He tried looking around, but was met by complete darkness, so dark that he could not even see himself.

It admittedly took him several minutes to realize that his eyes were closed.

When he realized this, and after cursing himself for his idiocy, he struggled to open his uncooperative eyelids. When he finally managed to open his eyes he was met with a dreary brick wall. To his left was a dull glow of light that barely illuminated anything. Straining slightly, Zero turned his head towards the light source and saw that it was peeking out from under a door.

A _steel_ door.

A very large and thick door.

It did not take an Alakazam to realize that he was trapped in a cell of some sorts, and a rather small one at that. Now that his eyes had adjusted to the dark, Zero could see various scratches and cracks all over the wall, making it apparent that the cell had been used to keep much stronger Pokémon than him trapped within it. There was also a rather raggedly looking straw nest of sorts that Zero could only assume acted as a bed for the prisoner. There were no windows in the cell and the air smelt of mildew and mold.

As he was looked around, Zero saw a strange lump partially hid by the shadows of the room. Focusing on the object, Zero began to make out the blurry details of limbs; two relatively long arms and two legs. The object looked to be black in color, but that could have been due to the shadows. In fact, if Zero squinted, he could vaguely see that the object was much lighter than the walls, possibly a brown or a reddish-brown...

"Furno!" Zero shouted in realization. Not even caring about the pain, the Riolu painstakingly dragged himself across the floor to his friend.

Once at his side, Zero could see that it was indeed Furno. The young Chimchar was lying face down on the stone floor, apparently unconscious. Quickly looking over his friend, Zero was glad to see that he appeared uninjured, just unconscious.

Lifting an arm, Zero reached out and shook Furno's shoulder. "Furno? Furno! You need to wake up!"

Zero's words seemed to do the trick as Furno's flame sparked to life, bathing the room in low light. Zero sighed in relief, slumping back to the floor as Furno's eyes flickered open.

"Oh," Furno moaned, holding his head. "Where am I?"

"We're in some kind of cell," Zero answered. Furno, apparently not expecting an answer, jumped in fright, his head snapping towards Zero.

"Zero!" he exclaimed worriedly. He rolled onto his knees and looked over his friend, taking in the various bruises and scratches that littered the Riolu's body. "You're injured."

"Yeah, I realized," Zero said, giving his friend a weak grin. He hissed in pain as Furno pressed a particularly sore spot.

Furno's eyes narrowed in concern. "Come on, let's sit you up."

Furno carefully took hold of his friend and half carried, half dragged him to the straw bed that was opposite to the door. He winced at Zero's barely muffled yelps of pain as his body was jarred with each step Furno took. Not wanting to hurt his friend, but still wanting to get him to the wall as quick as possibly, Furno hurried across the room and sat his friend down on the straw and leaned him against the cold wall.

Zero hissed in pain before sighing in relief as the cold stone soothed his back. The bed was rather scratchy and dry, but it was much softer than the floor had been. His body slowly began to relax despite the pain and he inadvertently closed his eyes.

Furno kneeled by his friend's side, worry filling his gaze. "What happened to us? Why are we here?"

Zero cracked an eye open and regarded the Chimchar. "I can only guess that Aster took us here."

Furno's head snapped towards the Riolu. "A-Aster?"

Zero nodded solemnly, not willing to meet his friend's eyes. "Yeah. I...I felt your fear from across the village and ran back to your house. When I got there, I saw Aster carrying you away and...I attacked him, but, as you can see, it didn't end well."

"B-But what about Stride?!" Furno demanded, sounding desperate. "There's no way he'd just let Aster take us!"

"I don't know what happened to him," Zero confessed. "I had been hoping that he'd have shown up while I was fighting Aster, but I think something stopped him because he never showed."

"S-So th-that means..." Furno eyes began to fill with tears and his heart rate increased. He looked at his friend and leader, silently pleading with him to tell him that it was all a joke. That it all was an elaborate prank to get him to believe that he had been captured by Aster, but Zero still did not meet his eyes. "Zero...?"

Zero finally met his friends eyes and the sadness and regret that shone in his red eyes told Furno the truth. "I'm so sorry, Furno..."

"No," Furno muttered. "This can't be real."

"Furno..."

"No!" Furno shouted, holding his hands over his ears. "This isn't real! I wasn't captured My parents didn't-!" Furno's hands shakily rose to his mouth. "Oh, Arceus..."

"Furno?" Zero asked, his worry increasing.

"My parents," he whispered. "They sold me out. The sent the mission request to lure me out for Aster. They betrayed me!"

Zero's eyes widened in horror. Never had he thought that Furno's own parents would sell him out to the emperor. "Are you sure that's what happened?"

"Of course I'm sure!" Furno snapped. "I remember them saying that the resistance had brainwashed me and that they wanted to help me. Then...then h-he showed up and he...and they...oh, Arceus!"

Zero's heart broke as he helplessly watched tears stream down his friend's broken and betrayed face. The fire type emotions smashed wildly against his mental shields, thrusting flashes of sadness, defeat, denial, and hopelessness through Zero. He wished that he could offer some form of comfort for his friend, but before he could a slot at towards the top of the door opened, revealing a face that Zero wished he had never had to see again.

"Aster," he growled, barely noticing Furno freeze beside him.

"Oh, good, you're awake," Aster said happily, a sentiment that was ruined by his cold smirk. "I was worried that I might have gone too far with you. Like I said, the emperor doesn't like his gifts in poor condition when he receives them. That being said..." Another slot opened up at the bottom of the door. A gray tray holding a single cup of water and three oran berries slid into the room before the slot closed once more.

"I recommend you eat those," Aster said. "After all, can't afford you dying on us. Then again, I was only tasked with retrieving young Furno, so your death is inconsequential."

Zero glared hatefully at Gallade from his position on the floor, not even paying attention to the tray. This seemed to amuse Aster to some degree as he chuckled lightly. "What's with the face?" he asked mockingly. "I didn't _have_ to take you along. I could have just killed you and been done with it, but after seeing such a display of loyalty, I couldn't bring myself to sever such a bond!"

Aster then grinned so eerily that a Gengar would find themselves jealous. "However, you are having reservations about your current circumstances, I can _arrange_ something."

Zero swallowed thickly at the implied threat, knowing all too well what the Gallade was capable of. He bowed his head submissively, shivering with barely restrained fear and self-disgust. This seemed to appease the psychic-fighting type was feeling as he chuckled at the sight. "Good, dog."

Zero paws clenched to fists at the insult, but said nothing. He could all but feel the sickening smile spread across the Gallade's face at his silence, but there was nothing he could do. Aster was way out of his league. He would not even break a sweat if he were to decide to kill him at that moment, especially in his weakened state.

"Now, I recommend you two get some rest, but don't get too comfortable," Aster said in his disturbingly happy and carefree voice. "You'll be shipped out to the emperor in a couple of days or so. Now if there isn't anything else..."

"Please..."

Aster paused mid sentence. Both he and Zero looked towards the Chimchar that was now sitting in the middle of the cell on his knees with his head bent. "I beg your pardon?"

"Please..." Furno repeated. "Let us go."

Aster quirked a brow. "Oh? And why would I do that?"

"Please, I'll do anything," Furno pleaded. He raised his head and showed his tear stained face. "Don't take us to the emperor."

"Furno," Zero said sadly, feeling the desperation coming from the fire type.

"Please, I don't want to go to the emperor," Furno cried, new tears beginning to fall from their precarious perch. "I'll do whatever you want, I promise!"

Aster's eyes marginally widened, surprised by Furno's begging. "Anything?"

Zero shivered at Aster's tone, alarm bell ringing loudly in his head. Whether or not Furno heard this was unclear as he nodded furiously. "Anything. Just let us go."

"Hmm..." Aster pondered, tapping his chin as he thought. "Whatever I want?"

"Whatever you want," Furno agreed, desperation clear in his voice.

"Well, I want..." Aster grinned evilly at Furno, "you and your friend to go to the emperor. Ta-tah now!"

Aster closed the slot shut the second Furno leapt at the door. "NO!" Furno smashed into the door and began to attack it in a desperate and wild manner. "LET US OUT!"

Furno scratched, bit, punched, and spewed flames at the door, shouting obscenities and pleading at the same time. Zero could only watch as his friend hurt himself in his futile efforts to break down a door that looked no worse for wear despite his friend's deranged frenzy.

Furno continued to attack the door for several more minutes before he began to tire. He soon slunk to his knees, pressing his bloodied hands and forehead against the unrelenting steel. "Please...let us go..."

As expected, he received no response. With all of his energy spent and his rage beginning to fade, Furno began to sob. Heart wrenching cries tore from his throat as his tears spilled down his face and splashed against the cold ground. He feebly beat his hand on the steel door several more times, softly pleading for their release, before he just curled up at the door.

"Furno?" Zero called tentatively. When he received no response he called out again, slightly louder. After a few seconds, Furno shifted and slowly got to his feet. Wordlessly, he stalked over to the tray, which was miraculously still standing, and brought it over to Zero.

"Here," he said, offering the tray to the Riolu. "You'll need these to heal."

Zero inwardly winced at the dead tone that his usually bright and chipper friend spoke with. Zero slowly reached and took one of the blue berries, but did not eat it. He looked up at his friend, but quickly lowered his gaze when he saw the broken and defeated look in the Chimchar's eyes.

He had never seen his friend like this before, so broken, so...lost. Such a look did not belong on his friends face. Guilt washed over Zero, tearing at his heart like a rabid Zangoose. "I'm sorry..."

Confusion shone in Furno's eyes. "What are you talking about? What are you sorry for?"

"I couldn't keep my promise," he said depressedly. "I couldn't keep you from getting captured by the emperor."

Furno's eyes widened in alarm. "Zero, you don't have to be sorry. If anything, I should be sorry! It was me that insisted on checking on my parents, even after you said that it could be a trap!"

"But I failed you!" Zero argued, tears beginning to form in his eyes. "You have always been there for me, since you found me, and I was supposed to protect you. I was supposed to keep you from the emperor, that was our deal, and I-" Zero chocked back a sob that threatened to escape him, "-I couldn't do it. I tried so hard, but I just couldn't..."

He looked away, the tears that he had been holding back beginning to slip down his cheeks. "I'm a horrible friend."

Having heard enough, Furno silenced him with a tight hug. "Shut up," he murmured. "You have nothing to apologize for. I know you did your best and I can't fault you for that. Besides..." He pushed back from the Riolu so he could see his face. "you're my best friend, and nothing will ever change that."

That was all Zero could take as he soon lunged forward and began to sob on Furno's shoulder. Pain be damned. Furno smiled sadly down at his friend, patting his back reassuringly. The two sat like that for several minutes until Zero's sobs devolved into a series of sniffs and whimpers. Furno gently pushed Zero away, keeping a grip on his shoulder, and gave him a reassuring smile.

"Better?"

"Yeah," Zero mumbled almost shyly. "Sorry about that..."

Furno just laughed. "Dude, you need to stop saying sorry. You're supposed to be the big strong leader. 'Sorry' doesn't suite you!"

Zero gave a watery chuckle, rubbing his still wet eyes to get rid of his remaining tears. Furno's grip tightened, prompting Zero to look up at his friend.

"Zero," he began, "you known you don't have to act tough all the time. You are free to cry, laugh, or get angry like the rest of us. Just because you're the leader doesn't mean that you have to carry all of the responsibility. That's why we're a team, so we can share the burden so no one of us has to bare it all."

"I know, but..." Zero looked down once more. "I owe you so much."

Furno sighed. "If I knew you'd be like this, I'd never had made you make that promise." Zero's ears dipped slightly at the words, thinking that Furno was upset with them, but quickly perked up when he continued. "To be honest, I was scared of being captured then, but I didn't want you to be my friend _just_ for a bodyguard. If I wanted that, I could have hired someone from the resistance. No, I wanted a friend for the sake of wanting a friend."

Furno pressed his forehead against Zero's and sighed. "Despite only knowing you for a couple hours I felt a connection. I'm not sure if it was you accidentally emitting your emotions, but I could sense the goodness in you. I knew then and their that you were a good person and someone I could trust wholly. That's why I was so excited to join the resistance with you, so that I could grow and become strong by your side. Honestly, if you didn't want to join, I wouldn't have either."

Zero chuckled at that. "Funny, I only joined because you wanted to. I still had no idea what was happening at that point so I just followed you."

Furno snorted. "Yeah, you followed me like a lost Growlithe pup."

"I wasn't that bad!" Zero pouted as Furno laughed.

"Sure you weren't," he said with a roll of his eyes. "Whatever make's you sleep better at night."

"Jerk," Zero grumbled good-naturedly. He made to hit his friend lightly when he gave a sharp yelp of pain, reminding them both of the pain the Riolu was in.

"Here," Furno said, grabbing the berry that had fallen from the Riolu's grasp and handed it to him. "You're going to need your strength if we want to get out of this mess."

"I take it you have a plan?" Zero asked, taking the fruit and sinking his teeth into its flesh.

"Isn't that your job, fearless leader?" Furno teased.

"Hmm." Zero pretended to think. "Well, when they come to transfer us, I say we rush them and fight are way through."

"Against the dozens of Pokémon that probably are here?" Furno closed his eyes and nodded his head seriously. "Yes, that would probably be the best option."

"I also suggest we take each take half of them," Zero added seriously. "That way we can get out of here faster."

"Agreed. I'll take any psychic and flying types that are here and you take the water, ground, and rock types."

"Hmm," Zero hummed in agreement. "What about a water-flying types?"

"Those could pose a problem," Furno said pensively. "We'll probably have to work together to beat them."

"Sounds like a plan."

They stared at each other for a second before the both broke out in peals of laughter. As the laughed, they momentarily forgot about their bleak situation. The solemn air that seemed to permeate from the walls retreated partially as humor and hope once again bubbled within the duo. Slowly their laughter calmed down and they sat their somberly, occasionally releasing a snicker or two.

"How are you feeling?" Furno asked.

"Better," Zero said truthfully as he finished off the oran berry. Many of injuries had begun to fade through the properties of the berry, leaving him sore instead of in pain. "The powers of berries will never cease to amaze me."

"Yeah, they're great," Furno said, taking one of the two remaining pieces of blue fruit. "Most Pokémon take them for granted, but we'd all probably doomed without these kinds of berries. You should probably take the last one, you're a lot more injured than I am."

"You're not even injured," Zero pointed out dryly, taking the berry.

Furno said nothing and the two sat in silence as they ate their berries. They took turns drinking from the single cup of water until there was not a single drop left. Furno placed the empty tray and glass by the door before returning to his friend.

"We should probably get some rest," Furno said after a couple more minutes of silence. "It's been a long day, not that I can even tell what time of day it is."

Zero snorted in amusement. "Yeah, you're probably right."

Zero scooted to the edge of the straw bed, giving room for Furno to lay down. Furno carefully curled up on the straw, careful to keep his tail flame from igniting their bed. He shifted slightly, trying to get comfortable before settling down.

"This is really uncomfortable," he complained. "How can Pokémon sleep on this?"

"I know what you mean," Zero laughed. "Though it's better than the floor."

"Yeah..." Furno yawned widely. "G'night, Zero."

Zero chuckled softly at his friend's slurred voice, knowing that Furno had most likely tired himself out after his display from earlier. Zero too yawned, both tired physically and mentally. He burrowed into the straw, his consciousness already beginning to fade.

"Good night, Furno."

-Resistance-

Zero shot straight up with a loud gasp, eyes shifting around wildly. When he was met with only darkness he slowly began to calm down. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he realized that he was still in the cell as before.

"So it wasn't a dream," he whispered. A very small part of him had hoped that the entire confrontation and betrayal of Furno's parents had been nothing more than a nightmare, but that hope had been swiftly dashed.

He glanced down next to him and smiled slightly at Furno's sleeping form. Furno was snoring lightly, curled up on his side and hands close to his face. Zero frowned when he saw that, despite being asleep, Furno's expression appeared to tense, indicating that he was not having a very restful sleep. Even so, Zero was reluctant to wake the chimp Pokémon as a fitful sleep was better than no sleep at all.

He rolled his shoulder, attempting to get rid of some of the stiffness that he was feeling. His body was still mostly sore, but it was a lot better than it had been. He absentmindedly looked around the dark room, wondering what it had been that had woken him up. He did not remember having a nightmare or anything, but he felt compelled to wake up. Shrugging his shoulders, Zero simply laid back down to get more sleep.

He suddenly shot up again as he felt the familiar sensation of eyes on him. The fur at the base of his neck stood on end at the feeling, sending shivers down his spine. He searched around the room for the reason behind this feeling, but he could hardly see anything as the light that had once shown from under the door was gone.

Finally his eyes landed on something in the far corner of the room. In the darkness he could just make out a slightly darker shape, but could see no defining features. As he stared, a pair of glowing red eyes came into being, fixated on Zero.

Zero felt his heart rate sped as the red eyes held his own gaze unblinkingly. Not daring to look away from whatever it was that was looking at him, Zero slowly reached over and shook Furno. The Chimchar gave a disgruntled noise, but remained stubbornly asleep.

"Furno," Zero whispered, shaking his friend a little rougher.

"G'way," Furno groaned in his sleep, still refusing to wake.

The emanation Pokémon's heart leapt to his throat as the eyes appeared to be getting closer. "Furno, you need to wake up," he said, slightly fearful. "Now!"

This had the desired affect as soon, Furno's flame flickered to life, illuminating the room. Furno sat up, his fire hanging over the side of the bed, and rubbed his eyes sleepily.

"Zero? What is it? Why'd you..." Furno trailed off as he saw the figure now illuminated by Furno's flame.

Standing in the firelight was a completely dark gray doll. It stood on two stubby legs with two long, flat arms that brushed against the ground. On its head were three rounded spikes and a zigzag shaped ribbon coming from the back of its head. Instead of a mouth, the creature had a golden zipper stretched over its face. It also had a short yellow brush-like tail.

"A Banette," Furno whispered fearfully.

"What's that?" Zero whispered back.

"It's a ghost type Pokémon," Furno answered, not taking his eyes off the strange Pokémon. "They're said to have been formed from the souls from forgotten and abandoned toys, the only thing keeping them going is the grudge their supposed to have for the ones that left them."

"Well that's unsettling," Zero commented, eyeing the living doll warily. "What do they do when they find them?"

"Nobody knows," Furno said. "They're extremely rare, and, due to the stories, everyone tends to avoid them."

"Too bad we don't have that luxury," Zero said through gritted teeth.

The Banette, for its part, had not moved from its place. Its zippered face was contorted into a confused frown as if it were trying to figure something out. Its eyes, now a pinkish-purple, were looking in their direction, but it looked as if the ghost type could not see them. It was as if they were looking for something

"What's it looking at?" Furno whispered to Zero.

"I don't know?" Zero whispered back. This, unfortunately seemed to garner the ghost types attention as its eyes snapped to Zero. The Banette crept forward couple paces and stood directly in front of Zero. It leaned forward slightly, its eyes piercing Zero's. Zero leaned back, unnerved by the sudden attention. "Furno?"

"H-Hey! Leave him alone!" Furno exclaimed bravely, taking a step towards the ghost type.

The Banette paid the fire type no mind and continued to stare unrepentedly at the Riolu. Its eyes stared directly into Zero's, causing the fighting type to shiver as it felt as if the being before him was gazing at his soul. The marionette Pokémon's searching look suddenly broke as its zippered mouth flipped into a wide smile. It made an excited sound through its zipper and lunged forward at surprising speeds.

"Ack!" Zero did not even have time to raise his arms in defense as the gray doll barreled into him and sending them both crashing to the ground. Zero's eyes automatically shut as pain lanced through his head as his skull made contact with the stone floor.

"Zero!" Furno shouted in alarm and fear.

Zero's body tensed, waiting for the pain from whatever attack the Banette was about to use to come. A second passed. Then another. Then another. Hesitantly, Zero cracked an eye open and saw, instead of attacking him, the ghost type was...hugging him?

The Banette had its flat arms wrapped tightly around his torso, pinning his arms and nuzzling its head against his chest. It eyes were closed in an expression of pure bliss.

"Zero?" Furno's questioning voice, snapped Zero out of his stunned revere. He looked up from the strange ghost type and met Furno's concerned and very confused face.

"Is this normal?" Zero asked.

"N-No?" Furno responded uncertainly. "All the books I've read say that Banette are some of the dangerous and volatile out of all other ghost types because of their grudge."

The Banette froze in its nuzzling and looked over its shoulder to glare at Furno. Said Chimchar yelped at the hateful expression and took several steps back.

"I don't think they liked that comment," Zero said, snickering slightly at Furno's reaction. He lifted a brow as the Banette shook its head violently as if agreeing with Zero's statement.

"Sorry!" Furno squeaked.

Zero carefully extracted and arm and awkwardly patted the Banette in what he hoped was a soothing manner. "Furno didn't mean anything by it," he said. "He was just being inconsiderate."

Furno made a noncommittal noise of discontent at Zero's words, but the former human ignored him in favor of looking at the mysterious Pokémon. The Banette looked up at Zero with big eyes before burrowing his face in Zero's fur.

Zero chuckled at this action. "You know, for a grudge driven Pokémon, this little guy's pretty adorable." Zero swore he saw a blush light up on the Pokémon's gray skin as it dried to bury itself in Zero's fur, prompting even more laughter from him. "It's okay, little guy. You don't need to get embarrassed."

The Banette looked up, face still slightly red, and glared at Zero. Zero grew confused as to why the Pokémon was glaring before a look of understanding dawned on him.

"Oh! You're a girl, aren't you?" The Banette gave him an 'obviously, are you stupid' look that had Zero scratching the back of his head in a sheepish manner. "I mean, of course you're a girl! You couldn't be anything else!"

The Banette nodded her head in what Zero swore was a pompous manner before she stood up, allowing Zero to get to his feet. The moment he did, however, she pulled him into another tight hug, shoving the poor Riolu's face into the surprisingly soft and cottony body.

"She's obviously affectionate," Furno commented wryly, "Have you met her or something?"

"Not that I recall," Zero responded, his voice slightly muffled.

"Hmm," Furno hummed pensively, glancing around the room. "How did she get in here? The door's supposed to be locked."

"Oh my Arceus. Have we been sitting in an unlocked cell this whole time?!" Zero exclaimed.

Furno walked over to the door and tried to move it, but it did not budge. "Nope. It's locked."

"Good. I was about to lose my mind if it wasn't," Zero sighed, glancing up at the Banette, as she was about a foot taller than him, but weighed almost nothing. "So how'd you get in here?"

The Banette cocked her head to the side, an action that Zero found oddly adorable on the ghost type. She then released her death grip long enough to point towards the door before grabbing the Riolu once more.

"You came in through the door?" Furno asked, eyes narrowing in skepticism. "Are you one of them, then? One of the emperor's soldiers?"

The Banette vehemently shook her head and glared at the Chimchar as if insulted by the mere implication of Furno's words. Furno was quick to raise he hands in surrender. "Okay, sorry! You're not one of the soldiers!"

The Banette nodded her head and went back to hugging the Riolu turned teddy bear. Zero sweat-dropped at this, but just awkwardly pat the ghost type's back awkwardly. She was surprisingly warm for being a ghost, though she was technically a possessed doll.

 _That's ironic,_ he thought bemusedly. _The doll is practically hugging me like a doll._

Furno cleared his throat uncomfortably. "So...do you have a name?"

The Banette did not answer, instead choosing to continue hugging the Riolu. Furno coughed loudly, trying to gain the ghost type's attention, but she continued to ignore him. Noting his partner's growing frustration, Zero tapped the Banette on the arm. "Do you have a name?"

The Banette cocked her head to the side and made a few strange guttural sound from the back of her throat. Zero's face scrunched in confusion. "Uh, what was that?" The Banette frowned before repeating the same sounds. Zero looked at Furno helplessly, but he was as clueless as him. "I'm sorry, but I can't understand you."

This seemed to depress the Banette. Her arms slid off of the Riolu and hung limply at her side. Her head was bowed and made a low warbling groan that sounded suspiciously like crying.

"I'm sorry, please don't cry!" Zero exclaimed, feeling terrible. "How about...how about we make a name for you?"

This stopped the Banette's cries as she turned to give the Riolu a confused look. Furno made a strangled noise of protest. "Zero, you can't just go around naming Pokémon! We don't even know anything about her!"

"You named me when we first met," Zero pointed out. Furno opened his mouth, but closed it, unable to refute the former human's claims. Zero took his victory and turned back to the ghost type. "So how about it? Would you like us to name you?"

The Banette frowned, appearing to think Zero's offer over. After a few second, she smiled again and shook her head yes.

"Cool!" Zero said with a smile. "Now what to name you...?"

"Hmm, well we know she likes to cuddle," Furno began, "so how about-"

"We're not naming her Cuddles," Zero interrupted.

Furno's face instantly grew red and he began to splutter. "I-I wasn't going to say that!" Zero just looked at him with a deadpan stare, not believing the flustered Chimchar for a second. Furno huffed, and turned his head to the side. "Fine, then what do _you_ think we should call her?"

Zero frowned in thought. He glanced at the Banette that was staring at him. Her eyes were wide and imploring, like a begging Growlithe puppy. Zero found himself smiling despite of himself. It was strange to see a ghost type, a type of Pokémon that were typically antisocial and unpleasant, to look like that.

And just like that, a name popped into Zero's head.

"Bella."

Both Furno and the Banette looked at the Riolu curiously. "Bella?" Furno asked.

"Yeah, short for Belladonna," Zero said happily.

"You mean the the poisonous flower?" Furno questioned.

"Exactly. Pretty yet deadly." Zero turned to the ghost, who was currently blushing. Whether from the comment about being pretty or deadly, Zero did no know. "So, what do you think?"

The marionette closed her eyes in thought, making several sounds as if she was trying to feel how it sounded. Not a second later she was once more glomping the Riolu enthusiastically, earning a laugh from Zero.

"I guess she likes it," Furno said.

"Looks like it," Zero agreed, smiling at the affectionate ghost type. "I guess we just got a new teammate."

The newly christened Bella, just smiled happily over her new name and for a second, her elated expression made the duo forget about their current situation.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Jail Break

"WAKE UP!"

Zero was awoken abruptly from his restless sleep. He shot up, disoriented and dazed. It took a second for him to recall why his room in the resistance had dull stone walls before his memories crashed into him. He groaned as he laid back down into the itchy straw.

"OH NO YOU DON'T! GET YOUR ASSES UP!" Zero jumped to his feet at the shout, dazed but still in a fighting stance.

"Wazzat?!" Furno slurred, still half asleep.

"Hmph, cute," the voice said condescendingly. "Now hurry up and get up! I don't have all day."

Shaking his head free of cobwebs, Zero focused on the voice. The top slot on the steel door was open revealing a sneering Pangoro.

"Rise and shine, kiddies," the Pangoro jeered. "It's breakfast time!"

The bottom slot of the door opened and a tray with two bowls containing colorless sludge and a few berries was kicked in roughly. One of the bowls capsized, spilling the lumpy muck over the tray and floor.

"Oops," the fighting-dark type said unapologetically. He laughed vindictively as he turned to walk away. Over his shoulder he called back in a taunting tone, "Enjoy your food!"

"Ugh, where are we?" Furno questioned, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He looked around and everything appeared to come back to him. "Oh..."

Zero winced at his friend's dead voice. It hurt him knowing that they had both lost their freedom and it was affecting Furno so much, but there was nothing Zero could do to console him. Instead he walked over to the tray, carefully scooped the goop that had spilled on the tray into the bowl, and brought it over to his friend.

"Here, " Zero said warmly, offering the tray to the depressed fire type. "We'll need our strength if we're going to figure out a way out of this mess."

Furno smiled weakly at his friend. "Thanks, Zero."

He took the tray and set it down at his side, beckoning for Zero to join him. The former human smiled and sat down next to his friend. He grabbed one of the bowls, the one that had spilled and placed it on his lap. He grimaced as he realized he would have to scoop the mush with his paws. Just before he did so, he realized someone was missing.

"Hey, where's Bella?"

Furno froze, his hand already dipped in the goop. "I don't know." He looked around, completely confused. "Where could she have gone."

As if summoned, the Banette came into existence right in front of the two Pokémon, scaring the living daylights out of them.

"Arceus!" Furno all but screamed, clutching his heart with his non-goop covered hand. "Don't do that!"

Bella paid Furno no mind and hugged Zero tightly, almost knocking his bowl of sludge from his lap. Zero awkwardly patted the ghost types back. "Good to see you too."

Bella made a happy chitter, which still sounded slightly woebegone and ghastly, and released the blue canine, smiling crookedly. The amount of familiarity that the Banette showed towards him was slightly unnerving. It was as if the Banette knew him, but that was impossible.

Zero shook his head, deciding that the ghost type was just overly affectionate, or at least towards Zero. It was slightly humorous that Bella seemed to only react to Zero and not Furno, though part of him hoped that they would get along in the end.

Zero glanced down at his bowl of slop and frowned. _I wonder if Bella's hungry. Wait, can ghost types even_ get _hungry?_

With that thought, Zero reached over to the tray and grabbed one of the berries. Upon closer look, he noted that the berry was slightly shriveled and bruised, indicating that it was rather old. Regardless, he offered the fruit to the marionette Pokémon. "Here. Have this."

The ghost type cocked her head at the sight of the berry, as if not understanding what it was. Zero was beginning to think that the Banette did not want to berry when her zipper unzipped on its own accord, revealing an empty black pit. Bella then took the berry and tossed it into the inky blackness that was her mouth. There was no chewing, no swallowing, no nothing. It was as if the berry was just tossed into the abyss, never to be seen again. It was a captivating if not slightly disturbing spectacle.

Zero and Furno stared at Bella with expressions of awe on their faces. Bella's zipper rezipped itself and she stared blankly at the duo, appearing have no reaction to the berry it had just consumed.

"Uh...was it good?" Furno asked hesitantly.

Bella did not respond to the chimp Pokémon question. She just stared at him in her unnerving way.

"Riiiight," Furno said awkwardly, looking at Zero for help.

Zero just shrugged helplessly and turned his attention to the unappetizing 'food' before him. Hesitantly he reached his hand into the bowl, shivering slightly at the gooey yet somehow grainy texture, and scooped up a handful. The goop had some pull to it, forcing Zero to use some effort in order to detach the glob in his paw from the rest of it. He took a tentative sniff before taking a bite and it was awful.

His eyes widened and began to water. His tongue cringed back, attempting to avoid the gunk, but there was nowhere for it to go. The taste reminded him of a time when he was blasted in the face by a Stunky's gas. The smell had stuck to him, in his nose, in his fur, it even seemed to graph itself to his mouth for a time until he bathed himself in tamato berry juice.

Shuddering violently, and forcing himself not to spit the stuff up, not knowing when they would be fed next, Zero choked down the slop. He nearly cried when he noticed that some of the stuff had stuck to his teeth and the roof of his mouth, forcing him to endure the taste for even longer.

"That bad?" Furno asked with a grimace.

"Unfortunately," Zero said, gagging as he tried to get the left over crud from his mouth.

Seemingly curious, Bella leaned over and looked at the bowl. He dipped a finger in the slop and pulled out a sizable dollop. Unzipping her mouth she deposited the small glob and waited. Almost immediately, her face contorted into an expression of disgust as she started to make retching sounds. Something small and black shot out of her mouth and splattered against the floor. Looking at it, it appeared to be the stuff from the bowl but mixed with...something.

"I guess she can taste stuff," Furno commented dryly, not even bothering withholding his grimace.

Bella spared the Chimchar an annoyed glance before rezipping her mouth and glaring murderously at the bowl.

For the next ten minutes, both Zero and Furno choked down the offending material, having to subsequent a berry at times to rid themselves of the foul taste of whatever it was they were eating. Finally, the duo could not stomach anymore of the offending material and set the still half full bowls back on the tray and left it by the door.

"So how are we going to get out of here?" Furno asked.

"Hmm," Zero hummed in thought. Glancing around the room he did not see anything that jumped out at him. There were now windows, no holes, and the only entrance or exit was the steel door. He crouched down and placed a paw on the floor. "The ground's solid stone so it is unlikely that you'll be able to dig through it..."

"Yeah, I'd have to be a Garchomp before I even thought about trying," Furno said, tapping the ground. "It's as hard as steel!"

Zero nodded absentmindedly and walked over to the wall. He observed the various scratches and cracks that lined them, noting that none of them were very deep. "This cell was clearly made to hold Pokémon, most likely those stronger than us so brute force is out as well."

"That only leaves the door," Furno said, defeat already evident in his voice.

Zero frowned and tested the door, not at all surprised to find it locked. "I guess it's too much to wish that the door was unlocked," Zero commented dryly. He looked down at the slot that had opened to deliver their food, but found that, while it was locked, it was way too small for either him or Furno to slip through.

"Dammit," Zero cursed, kicking the door in aggravation.

"Can't say I'm surprised," Furno laughed mirthlessly. "I mean, what kind of jail cell would it be if we could escape easily. It would take more than just us to get out of here."

Zero did not respond right away as he was still in deep thought. "...there has to be a way..."

As the Riolu thought and the Chimchar sulked, Bella the Banette watched them curiously. Her zippered mouth was stretched into a deep from as if she did not understand what they were doing. She looked towards the door and back to the duo, a look of confusion on her face.

"I've got it!" Zero suddenly exclaimed, startling his two companions.

"What?!" Furno asked eagerly.

Zero ignored Furno in favor of hurrying to the walls. He placed his paws on the stone and began to run them along the wall, stopping at each crack and scratch, a look of concentration on his face. After several minutes of silence, Furno could not take it any longer. "What do you have?!"

Zero stopped at a particularly large gouge in the wall that looked like someone had taken a large spoon and scooped out a portion of the wall. "Here," he said with a triumphant smile.

"What?" Furno practically whined.

"You were right when you said it would take more than just us to escape," Zero said, feeling around the gouge mark. "Alone, we wouldn't have a chance to get out of here, but maybe we're not alone..."

"What do you mean by that?" Furno questioned, completely lost. "Sure we have Bella with us, but I doubt she'd make much difference-" Bella glared at the fire type for that, "so what are you talking about?"

"We may be the only ones here currently, but that wasn't always the case." Zero placed his paw in the center of the mark. "By the looks of things, this cell has held multiple Pokémon in the past."

"Yeah, and?"

"And..." Zero smirked slightly. "we'll just borrow their power."

Before Furno could question what the former human was talking about, a small explosion erupted from Zero's paw, causing Furno to jump in fright. "What the hell, Zero?"

Zero wafted away the smoke and inspected the gouge. "The damage that has been caused in the past is still here. So if we attack a spot where the damage is greatest, we should be able to break through the already damaged section." He cursed when he saw that the mark had not changed in the slightest. "It'll take all of our strength to do it, but this might work."

"Zero...that's brilliant!" Furno exclaimed excitedly before his face fell once more. "But what if they here us trying to break out?"

"You heard how that Pangoro was talking, they don't see us as a threat and even if they do hear us, they'll think we're too weak to escape." Zero turned to look at his partner. "Furno, this is our only shot."

Furno still looked conflicted, but soon steeled his expression and nodded determinedly. "Right, let's do it Zero!"

Zero nodded, giving Furno a small smile, before he turned back to the wall and attacked the gouge with another force palm. After a brief explosion and cloud of smoke, the wall remained unchanged. Zero growled in frustration, knowing that it would take a lot more power to break the wall.

Furno stepped up next to Zero, eyes set on the wall. Electricity began to crackle over his clenched fist as he lunged forward and punched the wall with as much force as he could muster. There was a flash of light upon contact before Furno leapt back. The was still stood relatively unchanged, other than a few arcs of electricity sparking over it.

"This is going to take a while," Furno commented, shaking his hand out slightly.

"Then we better keep going," Zero said as he lunged forward with another force palm.

"Yeah," Furno said half-heartedly as he smashed another electrified fist into the stonework. He winced as his fist met unforgiving stone and stumbled back, his hand throbbing. He turned and saw Bella just standing there staring at them. "I don't suppose you can help with this, can you?"

The Banette cocked her head to the side and made a series of wailing groans, pointing at the door as she did so. Zero heard the noises and glanced over his shoulder.

"Bella, like I said we don't have to worry about them," he said. "Right now we need to focus on getting out. Can you help us or not?"

Bella made a distressed sound before once more beginning to point at the door, this time more vigorously.

"What's she saying?" Furno asked.

"I don't know," Zero sighed, turning back to the wall, "but we need to focus on getting out of here."

With that, Zero ignored the Banette and attacked the wall once more. Furno cast an apologetic glance to the ghost type before joining Zero once more in the task of breaking down the wall. Neither of them saw the depressed look that crossed Bella's face.

-Resistance-

The two of them attacked the wall relentlessly. Time seemed not to faze them as the determination to pushing everything else to the back of their minds. For hours they struck with as much force as they could , alternating their attacks to see what was more effective against the stone.

Eventually, the duo fell into a pattern. Furno would blast the wall with the most powerful flamethrower he could muster, heating the stone and making it slightly more moldable. While the wall was still super heated, Zero would follow up with several vacuum waves to cut into the stone before it cooled. They repeated this process to the point where the two of them could hardly stand.

The both kneeled on the ground, completely exhausted. The gouge, by that time, had become much larger than before. It was more dug out and multiple slash marks and cracks littered the surface. Upon inspection, it could be seen that the gouge now dug almost a foot into the thick stone.

"We're...almost there," Zero panted, though he still looked determined.

"I hope so," Furno groaned tiredly. "I'm running on fumes at this point."

"Come on," Zero said, staggering to his feet. "One more go."

"Yeah," Furno mumbled, getting up as well, albeit a little shakier. Furno closed his eyes and took in a deep breath of air before slowly releasing it. His eyes then snapped open and he leapt into the air with a flip while simultaneously spewing out a gout of fire that encompassed his form.

Forming a flame wheel, Furno launched himself forward and smashed into the wall. Furno pushed into the wall as hard as he could, rewarded with the occasional burst of rubble that flew from the wall. When he could not keep up the attack any longer, he leapt back, the fire dissipating, and Zero rushed past him.

Using quick attack, Zero raced towards the wall. Pooling what remaining energy he had left into his paw and lashed out with a powerful force palm. There was a blinding flash, a loud explosion, and the sound of falling rubble.

Zero stepped out of the smoke to stand next to Furno. They both waited with bated breath for the smoke to fully disperse. When it did, they could see a small hole where the gouge used to be and behind the hole was...

Another wall.

"No," Zero said, disbelief coloring his voice.

"There's another one?" Furno asked, arms dropping in defeat.

"BWHAHAHAHA!" The two of them jumped in surprise and whirled around. The top slot of the metal door was open and the Pangoro from earlier could be seen laughing uproariously at the duo. "Haha! You should see the look on your faces! You really thought-you really thought that-"

The large bear burst out into another fit of laughter. After a minute or so, he wiped a mirth induced tear from his eye. "Oh, this is just too good! Did you two actually thought you could escape that easily? Ha! Not only did you two make so much noise that the entire base could hear you, but you were so focused that you didn't even notice when we came by to see what you two were doing!"

"How long have you been there?" Zero asked, trying, and failing, to sound demanding.

The Pangoro grinned evilly at the duo. "Not sure really. It was still light out when I came by last."

"Still?" Furno repeated, a look of horror dawning on his face. "But that means..."

"That's right," the fighting-dark type interrupted, sliding a tray of small and slightly shriveled berries into their room. "It's nighttime, idiots. From how long we could hear you two going at it, I'd say you've been attacking that wall for the majority of the day! An impressive feat for a bunch of hatchlings like yourselves. I can see why General Aster nabbed you." He burst into into another fit of laughter. "But it was all for not!"

His smiled sinisterly at the two Pokémon, drinking in their looks of despair. "You're not the first to have breached the primary wall of these cells and you most definitely won't be the last. However, no one has ever gotten through the second wall which, in case you're wondering, is even thicker than the one you just broke through."

"No," Furno whispered, horror stricken.

"Yes," the Pangoro refuted. "You two are more than welcome to try your hand at breaking through the second wall, but considering how long it took you to get through the first...heh, I doubt you'll make much progress."

The hulking Pokémon allowed the slot to shut, cutting himself off from the defeated resistance members. His retreating footsteps echoed through the halls before they disappeared entirely. They were alone once more.

The two members of Team Dawn Breaker stood frozen in place, their gazes still on the door where their captor had just left, unable to either believe or comprehend what they had just heard. After a few seconds, Furno sunk to his knees in despair.

"We're not going to get out of here, are we?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"Of course we will," Zero lied, trying to sound upbeat, but he could not keep his own despair and hopelessness from his voice. He sunk to his knees as well and put a comforting paw on Furno's shoulder. "We'll get out of here."

"You're a terrible liar, Zero," Furno said. Tears began to prickle at his eyes and he was quick to brush them away. "I thought that we could get away. That we could get away without any of them noticing. I should have known better..."

"Furno..."

"No, Zero!" Furno suddenly shouted, turning to face the Riolu. Tears of anguish were freely flowing down his face, but the Chimchar paid them no mind. "We can't escape! I thought we could, but we just can't!"

Furno's voice fell from a shout to a low murmur that Zero could barely hear. "There's no escape from this. From this place. We're stuck here, forced to wait until they cart us off to the emperor. It's all over."

"That's not true," Zero denied stubbornly. "We can still-"

"We can still _what_ , Zero?!" Furno interrupted angrily. "Your plan didn't work! There's nothing more we can do!"

"I thought you didn't want to be captured by the emperor," Zero growled lowly, his own anger beginning to bubble forth.

"I don't!"

"Then why aren't you fighting this?!"

"Because there's nothing we can do!" Furno roared, taking Zero off guard with his sudden intensity. Furno panted lightly from his outburst before he wrapped his arms around his knees, pulling himself into a ball. "There's nothing we can do..."

"Furno..."

"It's all hopeless," Furno said, his tone dead. "There's nothing we can do to stop this. We can't escape the emperor. It was stupid of me to think we could."

Zero was silent. He had no idea how to comfort his friend. The Riolu wanted to tell him that he was wrong and that they could escape, but he could not think of any way out of their situation better than rushing the door when they opened it to transfer them.

The strained silence that encompassed the two was broken by Bella suddenly appeared before them. Neither of them had noticed her disappearance upon the Pangoro's arrival, too focused in their futile plan to take note of what was happening around them.

"I don't suppose _you_ have any idea of how to get out of here?" Zero asked half-heartedly.

Bella looked at him for a second before pointing towards the door. This caused Furno to growl in anger.

"No, you stupid ghost! We can't get out through the door!" he snapped furiously.

Bella glared at him, giving of a hollow growl of her own before pointing urgently at the metal door. Furno threw his hands into the air in angered exasperation.

"You just don't get it! We. Can't. Go. Through. Locked. Doors! Get it through your head and go away!"

Bella seemed taken aback by the Chimchar's furious rant. She looked over to Zero, giving him an almost pleading look as she pointed towards the door.

Zero sighed tiredly. "Bella, Furno's right. We can't get out that way."

The Banette's expression turned depressed at that. She pointed at the door again, almost desperately, but Zero just shook his head. Appearing to sigh, the Banette slumped slightly before vanishing from sight.

"Where'd she go?" Zero asked.

"Who cares," Furno huffed, glaring at the ground through red eyes. "She was annoying."

"That's not very nice, Furno."

"Don't care."

The two of the sat silently in their now dark cell, the only light coming from Furno's tail flame. After a while, Furno's anger seemed to burn itself out and he was now sitting there with a depressed air around him. Tentatively, Zero reached out and touched his friend's shoulder.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"No," Furno said truthfully. Zero took his friend's lack of anger as a good sign and pressed on.

"Do you really want to give up?" Furno sighed tiredly, eyes still remaining on the ground.

"No."

"Then why are you?"

"Because, Zero, there's nothing we can do! We tried to be smart with our approach, but it blew up in our faces. There is _nothing_ we can possible do to get out of this!"

"We could rush them when they open the door to take us away," Zero said, only half jokingly.

Furno gave a wry laugh. "Yeah, because _that'd_ work."

"You never know," Zero said, a small smile forming over his lips. "We may take them off guard long enough to get passed them."

"And get through the possible hundreds of other soldiers that are here," Furno added.

"I never said it would be easy."

"Nothing ever is."

"That's what we signed up for when we joined the resistance." They shared a laugh at that and descended to a peaceful silence.

"Hey, Zero?" Furno asked after a minute or two.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think they're looking for us? Stride, Quill, and them. The resistance. Do you think they're looking for us?"

"Of course they are," Zero said immediately. "Stride isn't one to just give up on someone and I know for a fact that Quill and Dusty will be doing everything they can to find us."

"Yeah," Furno said before going silent once more. After a few minutes, Furno suddenly began to giggle.

"What?" Zero asked curiously.

"I...I was just thinking about how Seth reacted to the news," Furno said, falling into another fit of giggles. Zero frowned for a moment before a look of understanding flashed in his eyes and he two chuckled.

"He'd probably say, 'Those two got captured? Hmph. They were too reckless. I told you hatchlings shouldn't be in the resistance!'" Zero said in a very poor imitation of the Absol's voice.

Furno snickered loudly. "Yeah, he'd be like: 'Those two should never have gone on that mission. I told you that it was a trap, now look what happened!'"

The two of them broke out in a fit of childish giggles at their own antics. When they finally managed to rein in their laughter they once more sat in silence, the tension that had once hung in the air now gone.

"So...rushing them when they open the door?" Furno asked sarcastically, earning a snort from his friend.

"Better than just going along with it. I'd rather get knocked unconscious and dragged to the emperor than go willingly."

Furno nodded his head in agreement. "Same. Maybe if we stall them long enough that will give the resistance time to find us."

"Mhm," Zero hummed in agreement. Before he could say more the sounds of jangling keys reached their ears.

They both immediately leapt to their feet and stared at the door. "Already?" Furno questioned, terror inching its way into his voice. "But they said tomorrow!"

"I guess they changed their minds," Zero growled, slipping into a sloppy fighting stance. Sloppy because he was still tired from attacking the wall. "Get ready, Furno."

"R-Right!" Furno yelped, getting ready to fight as well.

The two glared at the door, neither of them daring to breathe. The sounds of clinking metal cut through the silence before the sound of a large lock being opened echoed. The two resistance members swallowed thickly, a cold sweat beginning to run down their backs as they prepared to rush forward.

All too soon in their opinion, the door swung open and the duo charged forward...

Only to skid to a halt as they recognized the individual standing in the doorway.

"Bella!" Furno practically shouted.

The Banette glared at the Chimchar and brought a finger to her mouth. Furno immediately slapped his hands over his mouth and they all held their breath and listened. When no noise was heard, they released a collective sigh.

"Bella, how'd you get the door open?" Furno whispered, still slightly cowed by the ghost type's previous silent chastisement.

The Banette pulled out a large key ring and shook it joyously at the duo.

"But how'd you get out of the cell?" Zero questioned.

She gave him an 'are you an idiot?' look and promptly shoved her arm through the metal door.

"Arceus, I'm an idiot," Furno said, slapping his forehead. "She's a ghost type. Of course she can walk through solid objects!"

"I guess they didn't make these cells to hold ghost type Pokémon," Zero muttered. "That's what you were trying to tell us before, wasn't it?"

Bella smiled and nodded happily. She danced in place and pointed at the door for emphasis. Zero felt guilty over not listening, or rather not understanding the Banette. He could sense that Furno, too, was feeling rather guilty about how he treated the ghost type when she was trying to help them.

"I'm sorry that we didn't listen," Zero apologized.

"Yeah, we're sorry," Furno added. "We should have listened to you from the start."

Bella smiled proudly before swooping towards them and engulfing Zero in a hug. Zero laughed hesitantly, allowing the ghost type to pull him off the ground. Furno shuffled awkwardly off to the side and coughed slightly.

"Not that this isn't touching, but we should probably get out of here before they realize that the door's unlocked," he said.

"Furno's right," Zero said to the ghost type holding him. "We need to get out of here while we can."

Bella seemed to pout at this but put Zero down, albeit reluctantly. She walked to the doorway before stopping and gesturing for the duo to follow her.

"Do you know where to go?" Furno asked, unable to keep a small bit of skepticism from his voice. His reward was an annoyed glare and another more urgent gesture before walking down the hallway.

"I guess we'll find out," Zero commented dryly, stepping forward to follow the ghost type.

Furno sighed, but followed as well. "I guess anywhere's better than being in there. Especially come morning."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Escape

Zero and Furno hurried after the swiftly moving ghost type. The halls were all darkened with only the occasional glowing stone illuminating the hallways. This unfortunately made it rather difficult to follow Bella as her dark gray body blended in almost seamlessly with the shadowed walls. Neither Furno or Zero dared to run, fearing that any extra sound would give them away, something that they could not afford especially with Furno's flame lighting up everywhere they went.

Both Zero and Furno also realized that they were being held deep underground as they had to ascend several sets of stairs. Fortunately, while when they were on the stairs they had no cover, they encountered no opposition as to their freedom.

Every once and a while, Bella would stop her progression and tilt her head to the side as if listening to something, then take a random direction. Zero nearly questioned the marionette Pokémon on her actions on the third or fourth time she did such, but his words died in his throat when he heard voices coming from the direction they were originally heading. Since then, he decided to trust their new teammate's decisions.

It felt like they had been traversing the winding halls for hours, though it could have very well been mere minutes, Zero did not know. His heart was thumping a mile a minute, not just at the thought of being captured, but more so in anticipation over escaping one of the soldier's bases. If they got out of this situation in one piece, they would have such an amazing story to tell everyone.

 _Everyone..._ Zero frowned pensively. _Have they been looking for us? Are they_ still _looking for us? Now that I think about it, how they hell are we supposed to get back? We don't have a map or any items!_

Zero shook his head to rid himself of these thoughts. He could not afford to let such thoughts distract him at the moment, not while they were in the middle of escaping. He could think of their next course of action once they were a safe distance away from the soldiers.

With that, Zero focused back on their route and was ecstatic to see that they were standing before an oaken door. He moved forward to push the door open when Bella stopped him. Confused, he turned to his silent teammate. "What?"

Bella glared and furiously held a finger to her lips before gesturing towards the door. Zero, still confused shrugged, annoying the ghost type if her dramatic sigh was anything to go by. She then pointed to Zero's ears then to the door and repeated the action several times until Zero's eyes widened in understanding.

Nodding at the ghost type, the Riolu tentatively padded over to the door and pressed his ear against the door. A few seconds passed and Zero had yet to move. Furno opened his mouth to ask if he heard anything when Zero suddenly held up a paw, his concentration solely on the door.

As he struggled to listen, Zero could faintly make out the sounds of low muttering from, as far as Zero could tell, three different Pokémon. Zero cursed under his breath and backed away from the door and whispered to his team, "There are at least three soldiers on the other side."

Furno paled at that. "What do we do now?" he asked, slightly panicked. "If we don't get out of here now..."

"Calm down," Zero soothed, placing both paws on Furno's shoulders. "We still have time to get out of here. They were planning on transferring us in the morning. We still have several hours to escape. Okay?"

Furno took a deep breath, calming his fear and replacing it with determination. He looked up at Zero and nodded his head, telling the former human that he was okay. Zero smiled and turned his attention to their ghostly ally.

"Do you know of any other way out of here?" he questioned.

Bella contemplated the question before shaking her head in the negative.

"Dammit," Zero cursed, pacing a bit before turning back to the door. "The way things are, our only bet is to attack them head on."

"But we can't do that," Furno interjected. "You said there were three soldiers out there. We don't know what rank they are or how strong they are. We could be walking into a beat down!"

"We don't have much choice on the matter, Furno," Zero said grimly. "There's no other way to get out of here. The stone's still to thick to dig through and this is the _only_ way out. Our only option is to confront them and hope we can catch them off guard long enough to slip away."

"But even if we do that, the sounds of fighting would definitely alert the entire place to our escape!"

Zero opened his mouth to argue when Bella reached out and touched his shoulder. Turning, he gave her a curious if not slightly annoyed look. "What?"

Either not noticing his look or just not caring, Bella pointed once more to the door before gesturing to herself. Zero's brow furrowed at her pantomiming before a look of understanding followed quickly by a look horror crossed his face.

"No way," he said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

"What?" Furno asked, confused over what Bella was trying to say.

"She wants to go out there by herself!" Zero whispered harshly, still glaring at the unabashed ghost type.

"What?! Are you crazy?!" Furno asked, barely holding in his shout. "That's suicide! At least if we went, they would most likely try and take us alive!"

Bella, acting like she had not heard the chimp Pokémon's ranting, continued to stare blankly at Zero, imploring him with her eyes. However, Zero refused to back down. "No. It's way to risky. We'll find another way."

Bella made a strangled sound of frustration, bouncing from foot to foot. She glared at the Riolu and made several hollow sounding grunts all the while pointing at the door and herself. Zero withheld his urge to swallow thickly at the chilling glare that the Banette was fixing him with, but he stood firm.

"That's not going to work, Bella," Zero said, meeting the ghost type's glare with one of his own. "It is to risky for you to go alone. It is either all of us or none of us." When he still saw the defiant look in the ghost type's eyes, he added, "That's an order."

The Banette's glare deepened at the Riolu's words, but still Zero stood his ground. When it became apparent that Zero was not budging, Bella groaned and threw her hands up in frustration. She cast the Riolu a final annoyed look before disappeared from her spot.

"Bella!" Zero exclaimed, partially out of shock and partially out of annoyance. "Bella! Belladonna, get back here!" he demanded, sounding a lot like an irritated parent.

"Where'd she go?" Furno asked.

"I'll give you one guess," Zero said wryly, gesturing towards the door.

"She really went by herself?!" Furno gasped. "We've got to help her!"

"Right," Zero agreed. Just as they both stepped in the direction of the door, it opened.

The two escapees stood stock still as the wooden door slowly opened inwards, squeaking slightly from overuse. The duo quickly got over their shock and readied themselves for a fight before, for the second time that night, they were greeted by a grinning Banette.

"Bella?" Zero whispered, too shocked to be angry at the blatant disregard for his orders.

"Did she actually do it?" Furno questioned, gobsmacked.

As if answering, Bella pressed herself against the door and gestured for the duo to exit the dark hallway. Tentatively, they did so and instinctively took in a deep breath as they stepped out into the night air. The sounds of chittering bug types and the occasional caws of Murkrow were a welcomed sound to the duo who had only their own voices -and Bella's hollow grunts- to listen to for almost two whole days. They were so transfixed over the fact that there were finally outside that they did not notice the other Pokémon until Furno almost stepped on one.

A startled yelp escaped from the fire type's throat as he felt something scaly brush against his foot. Looking down, he saw that it was an unconscious Seviper. "Zero..."

"I know," Zero said, looking over the three other Pokémon that were strewn across the ground; an Electabuzz, a Scizor, and a Simisear. He looked to the Banette in shock. "You did this?"

Smugly, the ghost type nodded her head, puffing out her chest slightly. As she did so, Furno crouched down next to the Seviper and tentatively prodded his side. They all froze when the viper gave a disgruntled groan. They held their collective breath as the poison type groaned again before going still once more. They all sighed in relief and Furno continued his inspection.

"They're not unconscious," he proclaimed, standing back up. "They're asleep."

"Asleep?" Zero questioned, eyeing the Banette curiously. "How?"

Before Furno could answer, Bella's eyes flashed blue and she stared waving her hands in a strange pattern. Immediately the duo found themselves getting drowsy. The would have most likely passed out had Bella not stopped whatever she was doing.

"Hypnosis," Furno said, stifling a yawn.

"Right." Zero rubbed his eyes and smacked his face a few times, waking himself up fully. "Let's not waste anymore time here. We need to get out before they come to."

"Right," Furno readily agreed, looking like a huge weight had been taken from his shoulders. "Let's go!"

As they made to leave, Bella floated passed them and landed in front of them. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot in an impatient manner, her gaze solely on Zero. Zero, knowing what she wanted, sighed.

"I stand by what I said before-" Bella gained an affronted look but before she could do anything, Zero raised his paw for silence, "-but what you did was effective, so I can only thank you for that."

A pleased looked made its way on the Banette's face. She moved forward, intending to pull the Riolu into yet another hug, but Zero raising his paw a second time stopped her.

"Don't think you got away with this," he said sternly. "What you did went against my orders as a leader. If you want to be part of this team then you have to listen to me. I am letting it slide this time because you ended up helping us, but don't do it again. I am the leader and you will listen. Is that understood?"

Bella, reluctantly, nodded her head, slightly crestfallen. Cursing his bleeding heart, Zero tentatively patted her on the head in a consoling manner. "Like I said, you did good work, you just need to listen to me. I don't want anyone on the team to get hurt needlessly and I was worried that you would be hurt if you went out on your own. Do you understand?" She raised her head and nodded, appearing in slightly higher spirits. Zero smiled at that. "Good, now let's get out of here."

His response was the excitable ghost type lifting him in the air in a hug. She nuzzled his cheek with hers and began to float away, Zero still held in her arms.

"Hey!" Furno exclaimed, running after the duo. "Wait for me!"

-Resistance-

As it turned out, the base was situated near a forest that was a mile or two south of the stone structure. They trekked through the forest for the better part of two hours before the decided that they would take the rest of the night to rest and set back out in the morning. They quickly located a nearby tree that could support the three of the and rested for the remainder of the night. It only felt like they had been asleep for a few minutes before they had to wake up once again.

"So where do we go now?" Furno asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"We need to find a way back," Zero stated, glancing around at the unfamiliar territory. "Hmm. For Aster to have brought us to the base while we were both still unconscious, that would mean that we would have to be relatively close to Briarwood Village, right?"

"I suppose," Furno said uncertainly. "He dosed me with a sleep seed and, depending on the size, the can keep someone knocked out for several hours at the most, but if he kept dosing us..."

"There's no telling how long we have been unconscious," Zero concluded grimly.

"Which means we could be days away from the village," Furno added depressedly.

"Not necessarily," Zero said. "Remember, when we woke up we weren't all that hungry. Had we been asleep for more than a day we would have been a lot hungrier than we were."

"That's true," Furno conceded before adding, "but that doesn't help with the fact that we don't know where we are."

"Well, if we assume that we are at least somewhat close to the village, do you have an idea of where we could be?" Zero asked.

Furno frowned. "Well...if we _are_ near Briarwood Village, and that's very big 'if'," he stressed, "and we're not in Shrouded Forest, which surrounds the village in an arc...then I would guess this must be Alkane Forest."

"And where is that in relation to Briarwood Village," Zero pressed.

"Umm...it's just south of the village, but..."

"But what?" Zero asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"But there's a dungeon that is between the two," Furno said, gulping slightly. "Stormdrain Pond."

Zero slowly nodded his head, understanding his friend's anxiousness. "I take it it's a dungeon full of water types?"

"Not just that, but it's always raining," Furno said with a shiver. "Growing up, my... _parents_ -" he said this as if the words as if they were poison, "-always told me to stay far away from it because continuous rain, like the kind that is in the dungeon. weakens fire types."

"Is there any other way to get to the village through the forest?" Zero asked, reluctant to force his friend into a place where he'll have a clear disadvantage.

"Not unless you want to take a five day journey to go around," Furno said.

"I guess we'll have to chance it," Zero said, clearly not wanting to do it. "Which way do we go?"

"Straaaaight?" Furno said uncertainly.

Zero groaned. "Great." He glanced over to the silent Banette. "I don't suppose you know how to get there?"

Bella just stared blankly at him, cocking her head to the side in confusion. Zero groaned before slumping forward in defeat. "Why can't things ever be simple."

-Resistance-

 **Stormdrain Pond: F1**

As it turned out, they were in fact in Alkane Forest and only an hour or so away from the dungeon. They came upon it by accident when they passed between a set of trees and suddenly found their feet sinking in mud. The entire dungeon floor was muddy with very few stringy looking trees growing around. They were also surrounded by water, making it impossible to traverse the dungeon except through the corridors that led deeper into the dungeon.

Like Furno said, it was raining in the dungeon. Zero, upon feeling the first drop splash against his fur, instantly knew that this was not normal rain. It felt heavier and clung to his body more. Glancing at Furno he immediately took note of how uncomfortable he looked. Like him, it appeared that the rain was clinging to the fire type. His flame spluttered and flickered as water touched it, causing a trail of steam to steadily flow from him.

Furno, noticing Zero's look of worry, was quick to reassure his friend. "Don't worry, I'm okay."

"You sure?" Zero asked.

"Yeah it's just a bit uncomfortable and my fire attacks will come out weaker than usual, but other than that I'm fine," Furno assured, wincing slightly as more rain touched him.

Zero still looked doubtful, but decided that it would be better to just move on than to waste time arguing. With that in mind he looked over to the single corridor that led out of the room they were in.

"How many floors does this dungeon have?" he asked.

"I think five," Furno answered. "It's not a very big dungeon."

"Okay then. Let's get a move on." Zero turned and gave Furno a stern look. "I want you to be especially careful here. The rain is clearly effecting you more than you are letting on-" Furno opened his mouth to argue but froze at the sharp look Zero gave him, "-and there's also bound to be a lot of water types here and we don't have any healing items."

Furno sighed and resigned himself to nod in understanding. Nodding back, Zero led the trio through the muddy corridor, grimacing slightly as the mud clung to his feet, making his movement slower.

They marched through the mud, doing there best to move quickly through the deep mud. Bella, much to the jealousy of Zero and Furno, could float and thus moved uninhibited by the mud, something she looked particularly smug about.

With a distinct lack of items, Zero proceeded much more cautiously than before, occasionally glancing behind him to make sure Furno was okay. If Furno noticed these looks, he said nothing about them and loyally followed his leader, making disgruntled faces every once in a while due to the rain. Bella, bless her, looked like she was unbothered by their situation. In fact, she seemed very enthralled by everything around her if her awed look was anything to go by.

Unfortunately for Zero, during one of the instances where he was checking on his team, he stepped on something fleshy. He only had a moment to look down at the ground to and see a pair of eyes looking up at him before electricity engulfed him.

"GAH!" Zero cried out as electricity coursed through him, throwing him back into Furno, who barely managed to catch him.

"Zero!" he exclaimed. "Are you okay."

Grunting in pain, Zero pulled himself to his feet and glared at the Pokémon that had attacked him. Now that it was out of the mud, Zero could see that his attacker was one of the stranger ones he has fought. The Pokémon was a muddy brown color and was fish-like in appearance with yellow fins. It was also completely flat.

The Pokémon somehow stood on its head(?) with its tail fin waving angrily in that air. It made several garbled cries as it bounced up and down in apparent anger.

"Stunfisk," Furno answered Zero's unspoken question. "It's an electric-ground type. They tend to live in marshy areas where they can hide in mud."

"Great," Zero groaned. "Then let's..."

He never finished his sentence as Bella exploded forward. Zero was about to call out to her when he was hit with a blast of unrelenting anger from the ghost. Releasing a guttural growl, Bella clawed at the Stunfisk with a shadow coated hand, raking over the wild Pokémon's face.

The Stunfisk screeched in pain and bounced away from the Banette. Electricity began to gather around its form as it prepared to fire a blast of lightening. However, before it could release it, Bella shot forward and sucker punched the Pokémon. The Stunfisk gasped breathlessly as it was forcibly thrown down the corridor. It slammed into the mud with a sharp **slap** and kept going, forming a shallow trench of mud that fell over top of its unconscious form.

Zero and Furno stared open-mouthed at Bella's quick dispatch of the Stunfisk. Bella, for her part, seemed unfazed by what had just transpired, instead moving over to the Riolu and checking him for injuries. Zero did notice that her rage subsided the second their enemy had lost consciousness, but other than that, she gave nothing away.

Furno was the first to snap out of his stunned state. "Zero, you have to be more careful than that. You yourself said that we had to be careful here, yet you got distracted almost immediately."

"Sorry," Zero mumbled, successfully cowed.

Furno's expression softened. "This isn't different than any other dungeon. Trust us to be able to watch out for ourselves."

Zero grew sheepish at that. "Right...sorry abou-LOOK OUT!" he suddenly shouted, causing Furno to immediately drop to his stomach.

It was a good thing he did as a stream of water shot through the air where Furno was standing. Getting back to his feet, Furno turned and saw an irate Poliwag glaring angrily. Rolling his eyes, Furno dashed forward, his fist crackling with electricity. Before the tadpole Pokémon could react, Furno sent the water type flying into the water with a powerful thunder punch.

With the threat dealt with, Furno turned and gave the former human a bright smile. "See, trust us."

The moment he said that, the sounds of splashing water came from behind them. Turning they saw that the Poliwag that Furno had just knocked into the water had come back. With several friends.

"Right, trust," Zero deadpanned, earning a sheepish chuckle from Furno.

-Resistance-

 **Stormdrain Pond: F3**

After dealing with the mob of angry Poliwag, the trio soon found the stairs to the next floor. They met no opposition, other than the continuous rain, on that floor and quickly made their way to the next staircase. As they entered the third floor, Zero noticed that Furno had started to shiver violently.

"Furno," he began, a worried expression on his face, "are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah. I-I'm f-fine," Furno stuttered unconvincingly.

Not buying his words for a second, Zero stepped over to his friend and placed a paw on his friend's forehead. "You're freezing!"

"I-It's n-nothing," Furno tried to deny, but could not stop shivering.

"It's _not_ nothing," Zero growled at Furno's stubbornness. "This rain's effecting you!"

"Y-Yeah," Furno admitted finally, lowering his head in shame. "I-In d-dungeons weather is a l-lot more b-brutal than out. It's wh-what makes going th-through dungeons so h-hard."

Zero cursed under his breath and pulled the Chimchar to him in an attempt to warm him up. This seemed to work to some degree as Furno soon stopped shivering as bad, but he was still cold. "We need to do something to warm you up."

Hearing this, Bella frowned before flying down a random path before Zero could say anything. Zero cursed again but decided against chasing after the ghost type. He was confident that she would be fine on her own, given how she handled herself against that Stunfisk earlier, and Furno needed him more at the moment. So, Zero found himself standing there with his shivering friend clinging to him for heat.

Worried for his friend, Zero looked around the room they were in and saw a ragged looking tree off to the side. Deciding that it was better than nothing, Furno practically dragged his friend under the tree. They stood their for several minutes in silence. Furno kept glancing up at Zero, but the Riolu was staring at the corridors. Unable to take the silence anymore, Furno spoke.

"S-Sorry.".

"For what?" Zero questioned.

"F-For not telling you about the rain," Furno murmured, looking down. "I j-just thought that it would m-make you want to g-go around."

"Well you're right," Zero said, shuffling slightly to cover Furno away from the elements somewhat. "I would never have taken this route if I knew that it would have this kind of effect on you. Like I told Bella yesterday, I don't want any of my teammates and friends to get hurt needlessly."

"I know," Furno said dejectedly. "This r-route was just s-so quick and I wanted to g-get home..."

"It's fine," Zero assured his friend. "I understand where you're coming from. I want to get back too, but that's no excuse to put yourself in danger in such a way."

"S-Sorry," Furno muttered.

Zero sighed, but said nothing. They fell into an uneasy silence, the only sound coming from the sounds of rain splashing against the mud and water. Just as they had begun to relax two loud splashes reached their ears. Turning the duo was greeted by the sight of two small, blue armless Pokémon with relatively long and bulbous tails. On the sides of their heads they had purple antenna-like protrusions and three dark blue thick lines -growing smaller as they went up towards their heads. The Pokémon were smiling widely, but they could see unprovoked anger in their white eyes.

The creatures garbled incoherently and shot twin jets of water at the duo, forcing them to separate to dodge. Sliding across the mud, Furno lost his balance and fell on his back with a groan.

"Furno!" Zero shouted. He tried to move towards his friend, but was stopped by another stream of water.

Furno, grunting in annoyance and discomfort, got back to his feet and glared at one of the Pokémon as he bounced towards him with its stubby legs. Desiring a swift end to his attacker, Furno lunged forward with a thunder punch and slammed it into the Pokémon's face. The Pokémon's head jerked to the side from the force of Furno's punch, but the electricity from his fist seemed to have no effect against his foe.

Eyes widening in horror, Furno was unable to react before the Pokémon turned back around and fired several globs of mud at him. Crying out in pain, Furno fell to the ground, sending mud flying everywhere.

Groaning, Furno opened his eyes to see those blank eyes staring down at him. The thing gurgled in a feral manner as it reared its head back to finish off the fire type when a shockwave of blue wind cut through the rain and slammed into the Pokémon, sending it away from Furno's prone form.

Furno managed to raise his head and see, Zero kicking the other Pokémon away from him and dash towards him. "Furno! Are you okay?!" he shouted in worry.

Furno wanted to say 'yes' but the words died in his mouth when a wave of pain erupted from his chest. Looking down he saw several already purpling bruises forming. Zero muttered under his breath and helped Furno to his feet. As he did, the two Pokémon had recovered and were now flanking the duo.

"You up to fighting?" Zero asked.

"Y-Yeah," Furno said with a barely suppressed shiver.

Zero looked unconvinced, but left it as it was. "Okay then. You focus on one and I'll take the other. I'll help you when I get the chance."

With that, Zero dashed towards the Pokémon closest to him, leaving Furno to face the other by himself.

Now aware of the Pokémon's resistance to electric based attacks, Furno's options were rather limited. Not only would his fire attacks be not very effective against the water-type, but they would also be severally weakened by the rain. That only left him with dig and fury swipes as his only viable options. With that in mind, Furno was not very confident in his chances. Unfortunately, he did not have much of a choice as the water type was now charging.

He leapt to the side, avoiding the Pokémon's charge before lunging at the creature with a fury swipes. He raked his hands, now sharpened with energy, repeatedly over the Pokémon's body, causing it to cry out in pain. However, much to Furno's ire, the Pokémon was a lot hardier than the others that they had faced on previous floors.

It immediately whirled around and fired a water gun straight at Furno's face. The Chimchar was just barely able to dug under the stream of water and respond with a severally weakened flamethrower. As he did so, and the flames washed over his opponent, Furno felt his body grow even colder.

 _What the heck?_ He thought, alarmed. _Why do I feel colder? Is...is it because I used flamethrower?_

Thoughts on how the rain was contributing to him being weaker as well as the cold spreading through him plagued his mind as a horrible thought occurred to him. _Of course, it's been my fire keeping me warm this entire time. The same fire I use to power my fire attacks._ He looked down at his spluttering tail flame. _Usually my fire can replenish itself after I use a fire attack, but in this rain...it can't replenish fast enough!_

As Furno came to this horrifying revelation, the wild Pokémon had recovered. Before Furno could react, he was blasted by a high powered stream of water.

"GAH!" he shouted as he was struck by yet another super effective attack. He fell to the soft ground, shivering in an even more violent manner as the cold was intensified.

 _Not good,_ he thought as he struggled to his feet.

The Pokémon advanced upon him mercilessly, kicking its foot against the mud and sending a wave of filth cascading down upon him. Furno quickly rolled out of the way, barely avoiding the mud slap, and pushed himself to his feet. Not knowing what else to do, Furno then dug through the softened earth, disappearing from view.

The armless Pokémon became confused at its foe disappeared. It looked around curiously for any sign of the fire type it had been attacking, but saw nothing. Believing that its enemy had fled, it turned to the blue Pokémon that was currently attacking its brethren. Just as it was about to assist in the fight against the other Pokémon, the mud underneath it caved in, causing it to sink slightly, before its previous enemy burst out and rammed into it.

Furno sent the wild Pokémon flying through the air with his dig, wincing as the rain once more begun to pound against his skin. Digging through the mud had not been much better than standing out in the open. Like sand, the mud constantly filled back in the tunnel he was burrowing, making it nearly impossible to stay under for too long.

Growling in annoyance, Furno watched as the Pokémon got up once more, albeit slower than before. Wanting to end the battle, Furno ran forward, energy coating his nails in preparation for another fury swipes attack. The Pokémon fired several globs of mud at Furno as he ran towards it, but Furno deftly dodged them all until he was right in front of the Pokémon. Without hesitation, Furno wildly clawed at the creature at a rapid pace.

The Pokémon screeched in pain as it was helpless to stop Furno's assault. Finally, after taking multiple hits, the Pokémon fell forward and lost consciousness, releasing a final weakened cry as it did so.

Relieved that the fight was finally done, Furno allowed himself to take a breath. He slumped forward slightly, panting harshly and shivering all at the same time. The sounds of sloshing mud reached his ears and as he turned he saw Zero making his way towards him.

"Furno! Are you okay?!"

"Y-Yeah," Furno managed to mutter before suddenly pitching forward. He would have landed face first in the mud had Zero not managed to catch him.

"Liar," the Riolu muttered under his breath, though a hint of fondness could be heard in his voice.

"S-Sorry," Furno whispered tiredly.

"Mmm," Zero hummed noncommittally. He began to half carry half drag his exhausted friend back over to the tree when a familiar grunt garnered their attention.

Standing just outside of one of the paths with two slightly muddy fruits clutched in her hands. One was a familiar blue oran berry and the other was a much larger yellow one with light blue rings around it. The Banette floated over to them, a look of concern on her face, though it was more directed towards Zero.

"Bella, where'd you go?" Zero asked, an accusing glare focused on the ghost type.

Bella rolled her eyes at the glare and showed them the fruit in her hands.

"B-Berries? Y-You l-left f-for b-berries?!" Furno exclaimed disbelievingly.

Again, Bella rolled her eyes and offered Furno the yellow berry. Zero leaned closer to get a better look at the berry and frowned. "An aspear berry? But none of us are frozen."

"W-Wait," Furno said, the gears in his head turning. "A-Aspear b-berries h-heal left over i-ice d-damage done b-by heating up the e-eaters b-body. I-If I w-were t-to eat o-one..."

"Then it might heat you up!" Zero exclaimed in understanding. He quickly took the berry and held it up to Furno's mouth. "Here. Hurry and eat it!"

Furno did so, though at a fairly slow pace. Immediately, he felt his body warm up and his flame become slightly more lively. Once he had completely consumed the fruit, the cold that had been gripping him was hardly more than a chill. He beamed at the ghost type.

"Thank you," he said gratefully.

Bella stared at him for a moment before nodding curtly. She then turned her attention away from the Chimchar and back to Zero. She held out the oran berry for him to take, but frowned when Zero gave it to Furno.

"Okay," Zero said once Furno had finished off the berry. "Let's get out of this Arceus forsaken dungeon."

"Here, here!" Furno exclaimed enthusiastically.

-Resistance-

It took the trio the better part of two hours, though it felt like ages, to get through the dungeon. The quickly traversed through the remaining two floors as Zero was pushing them with a renewed sense of urgency now that he knew how much the rain affected his friend. He personally attacked any and all Pokémon that got in their way with brutal efficiency, not willing to waste any more time than they had to. Bella too dealt with her own fair share of enemies, mainly those that managed to skirt past the Riolu while Furno dealt with the very few one that were left.

The Chimchar was tempted to argue the fact that Zero did not need to take on every Pokémon himself and that he was still capable of fighting, but, knowing Zero, his words would go unheeded regardless. They continued this way of fighting until they finally reached the end of the dungeon.

Once they exited, the rain immediately stopped. Looking to the sky, they could see that there were no rain clouds in the sky, giving a clear view of the sun as it began to set. The environment also transitioned from a muddy marshland to a grassy hill, the ground once more becoming hard and sturdy.

Rushing to the hill, the trio could just see a village in the distance. A village that Furno knew all too well.

"That's Briarwood Village alright," he said, unable to keep the bitter tone from his voice.

Zero, noting the bitterness in his friend's voice, regarded him from the corner of his eye. "We don't have to cut through, in fact, we probably shouldn't. We'd be better off cutting around and avoiding it all together."

"...right," Furno said half-heartedly.

Frowning, Zero chose not to say anything, knowing that Furno had things to work out on his own. "Come on. Let's get going. I want to be at least several miles away from that dungeon before nightfall."

"That's not gonna happen!"

The trio jumped as a voice boomed from behind them. They whirled around and saw a Pangoro, slicked with mud, stomping towards them with a murderous gleam in his eye. They recognized the fighting-dark type as the same one from their prison and tensed in preparation for a fight.

"You...little...punks!" the Pangoro growled, practically foaming at the mouth with rage. "Do you know the kind of shit you put me through?! When you weren't in your cell for transport, Aster flipped. He nearly killed all of us for letting you go and then forced us to find you and bring you back!"

The Pangoro stopped several feet away from the trio and glared murderously down at them. His large hands were clenched into tight fists as he visibly shook with barely suppressed rage. The trio could almost hear the sound of his teeth grinding against one another.

"Now, I'm going to give you lot _one_ chance to come back quietly before things get messy," he continued, growling threateningly. When the trio did not move, he growled lowly. "Fine then."

His fists took on a bright orange glow as his fists tightened even more. He stepped back and sunk into a low stance, both his fists raised. He looked directly at the three in front of him with unforgiving black eyes.

"Don't say I didn't warn you, because I'm not gonna stop 'til you're all black and blue!" he roared as he lunged forward...

...only to be sent flying back by a large blast of water.

The Pangoro shouted in alarm and shock as he was sent tumbling down the hill, cursing all the way. Before the trio could comprehend what had just happened a familiar Greninja landed right in front of them, glaring at the daunting Pokémon.

"You will not touch my student," Stride growled out.

"Stride!" Furno exclaimed, shock and relief both coloring his voice.

Stride turned his head and smiled at them. He raised a brow at the Banette, but chose not to comment. "Furno, Zero. Good to see you two. Are you okay?"

"A lot better now that you're here," Zero said with a smile. "How'd you find us?"

"When we got back to the Latios Division, we contacted someone who could track you. He's been doing so ever since then. Though you only recently popped up for him."

Zero furrowed his brow at that. "What do you-"

"RAAH!" Zero was cut off by the Pangoro suddenly roaring in rage. He had just gotten back to his feet and was now glaring up at them. "Dammit! Why the hell are you here!"

"You kidnapped my students and I've come to collect them," Stride responded coldly.

"Damn you," the Pangoro growled. "It' doesn't matter. I just kill you and take them back then!"

"I'd like to see you try." Both Zero and Furno blinked at that. Stride, for as long as they knew him, had never been cocky. He joked around and gave advise, but he never trash talked while fighting. Looking at his face, they saw that his face was completely devoid of emotion, even Zero could not feel anything from the ninja Pokémon and that unnerved him.

They were broken from their thoughts when the fighting-dark type roared once more. He began to run up the cliff, eyes solely on the stoic water-dark type when a glowing blue sphere appeared off to the side and slammed into him.

The Pangoro screamed in pain as he was smashed into the hill from the force of the attack. As he began to get up a blue blur rushed up the side of the hill and punched the pack of his head, causing Zero and Furno to wince at the cracking sound that resounded from the impact. The Pangoro did not even get a chance to even cry out as he was sent into darkness.

Stride stared at the newcomer in a bored manner. "You're late."

The newcomer got to his feet, revealing a Lucario that all but Bella knew.

"Orion?!" Zero shouted, shocked to see the Lucario here of all places. "What are you doing here?!"

"He's the one that we got to track you two," Stride explained. "Lucario have the ability to 'see' with aura. We had him situated with several chunks of crystallized aura to expand this ability so he could locate you."

"You two must have been somewhere secure for me to not have found you until last night," Orion said, walking up to them. "How'd you guys escape anyway?"

Zero and Furno glanced at one another before the both smiled.

"That's a long story," Zero said.

"Well it's a good thing we've got a rather long journey back home," Stride said with a smile of his own.

"Home..." Furno mumbled longingly. He glanced over the cliff at the village that he had called home before turning back and smiling widely. "Yeah, let's go home."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Falling Into the Swing of Things

"You're alright!" Quill cheered as he exited the hallway, not even giving them a chance to enter their quarters. He barreled across the room and pulled the duo into a tight hug.

"Good to see you too, Quill," Furno groaned in slight pain, but smiled despite of himself.

"I was...I was so worried about you," Quill murmured, burying his head into the collective shoulders of his two teammates. "When Mystic told us that you were gone and we got their and all we saw was the blood..."

Zero visibly winced the mention of blood. He knew that it was from his 'fight' with Aster that caused this subsequent loss of blood. It pained him to think of the worry and pain that he might have caused his friends.

"When we saw that, I couldn't help but fear the worse," Quill continued, broken and hurt. "I...I didn't want to lose anyone else..."

He carefully extracted his arm from the Quilladin's grip and awkwardly patted his friend on the back. "It's okay, we're here now."

"I'm not a hatchling," Quill said stubbornly, though his statement was weakened by the sight of tears leaking down his face. "I was just worried."

"He was blubbering like a newborn Togepi while you were gone," Dusty interjected dryly, stepping into the hallway. Despite his rather blank tone, his eyes held a great sense of relief at seeing his two teammates returned and safe. "It is good to see you two back."

"It's good to be back," Furno said, smiling widely. "I can't wait to get to sleep in my own bed. It's been a really long week."

Zero found himself nodding at Furno's words. Aside from the four days that they had been away, things had been stressful for the duo. After Stride and Orion brought them back to the Latios Division, they were immediately accosted by the tribunal. They grilled the duo on every piece of information regarding their capture, their imprisonment, even their escape.

For hours the trio of leaders questioned them about their time in enemy captivity. They were forced to give a very detailed description of the base and its infrastructure, or at least to the best of their ability, down to every last crack. They gave a general location of the base, or at least tried to as they did not have a map at the time, and this seemed to appease the Delphox and Alakazam, though the Haxorus still seemed unsatisfied with the information they gave.

By the time they had told there story for what felt like the hundredth time, they were permitted to leave. Stride escorted them back to their floor with a promise to visit them shortly after, giving them time to get reacquainted with their team, thus their current situation.

"I can only imagine," Dusty nodded.

"Then you should be resting!" Quill said, suddenly motherly. "Let's get you to bed!"

"We're not _hatchlings_ , Quill," Zero said, mimicking Quill's past statement with a teasing grin.

"Quiet, you," Quill said, grinning happily. He turned, with the duo still in his arms, and moved to enter their quarters with them when a hollow grunt cut through the silence. Quill stopped mid-step and turned, taking note for the first time of the Banette that was standing in the shadows. "Uh...who are you?"

"That's Bella," Furno said, squirming slightly in order to see the ghost Pokémon. "She kind of just appeared in our cell in the night. She's the one that helped us to escape."

Bella, seemingly tired of the conversation going on around her, stepped up to Quill. The grass-fighting type looked uneasy as the ghost entered his personal space and took furtive step back. Bella seemed unperturbed by this action and just walked closer until she was mere inches from the Quilladin. Quill glanced around nervously as pink eyes bored into him, seeing further than he wished them to. After a few seconds of prolonged eye contact, Bella turned her gaze unto Dusty, who, for his part, stared unflinchingly back.

After a tense minute of silence, Bella blinked. She turned back to Quill and nodded, seemingly satisfied with her findings. Before Quill could respond, she had plucked Zero from his arms and brought him into hers and began cuddling with the exasperated Riolu. Confused, Quill opened his mouth to comment on this strange action, but stopped when Furno placed a hand on his arm.

"Don't worry, she's just really affectionate," he said with a sheepish smile. He glanced back at the duo and sweat-dropped when he saw Zero squirming to get out of her grip while her hold just tightened. "...to Zero at least. Also, could you let me down now?"

"Oh, right!" Seemingly coming aware of the fact that he was still carrying the fire type, he set him down on his feet. He chuckled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry about that, I was just a little...emotional."

"It's fine," Furno assured.

"I mean, I didn't want to make you feel awkward," Quill continued to babble. "It just you were gone for so long and I- _we_ were both worried about the two of you..."

"It's fine, Quill," Furno repeated, his smiled becoming slightly strained.

" It's just been really hard on us and I was just so glad to see the both of you and I just-"

Furno reached up and firmly gripped the Quilladin's shoulders, forcing him to look down at the smaller Pokémon. "Quill! It is _fine_."

Quill chuckled weakly, an embarrassed flush coloring his face. "Sorry about that. You know me; I tend to prattle on when I'm nervous."

"So I've gathered," Furno said dryly, smiling a fond smile.

Zero, resigning himself to being cuddled like a stuffed toy, shook his head in amusement at his teammates antics. For all Quill's confidence and bluster, he got flustered rather easily and it was very amusing when he would try and rationalize his actions. The former human grunted inaudibly as the ghost type unconsciously tightened her grip on his body, bringing up thoughts regarding the Banette.

Bella, for all intensive purposes, was an enigma. Neither he or Furno knew anything about the ghost type other than the fact that she suddenly appeared in their cell and knew the base well enough to lead them out of it. If it was not for the fact that she helped them not just in escaping, but through Stormdrain Pond as well, Zero would not hesitate in being mistrustful of the Banette. However, had it not been for her, it would be more than likely that he and Furno would never see the Latios Division again. It was this fact that allowed her a space on their team.

When Bella was questioned by the tribunal, they had been understandably hesitant on allowing her entry into their division. The fact that she could not, or would not, speak to them only added to this mistrust. Roman wanted to either imprison or 'eliminate' the Banette as a possible threat, an action that was instantly shot down by Katherine. Regulus, seeking to stop yet another argument from breaking out between the two, attempted to read the ghost type's mind in order to gain some insight on her intentions, but received nothing for his efforts. This only served to add fuel to Roman's fire as he launched into another tirade about Bella being a liability.

Eventually, it was decided that Bella would become a fully fledged member of Team Dawn Breaker, if only so they could keep an eye on her and discover her intentions. Both Zero and Furno were all to happy with this decision and promised to report any strange occurrences or behaviors linked to or caused by the marionette Pokémon. Zero, personally, felt that the Banette was already showing strange behavior with her unexplained affection centered on himself, but chose not to mention it. She was not hurting anyone with her actions, just his pride.

With that in mind, Zero decided he had allowed himself to be hugged long enough and squirmed in the Banette's grip. She made an annoyed sounding moan, but let him down all the same. Flattening some fur that had become disheveled from the Banette's hug, he addressed the team for the first time for what felt like a long time.

"Okay, I'm sure the both of you have questions regarding what we went through," he said to Quill and Dusty, "but I would feel much more comfortable discussing this in our rooms."

Quill nodded immediately and ushered them into their rooms, switching immediately to his 'mothering mode'. Zero and Furno soon found themselves situated on one of the couches with Quill and Dusty sitting across from them and Bella exploring the large space. The duo began to retell their story of their capture and subsequent escape once again for their two teammate, hoping that this would be the last time.

Both Quill and Dusty listened with rapt attention to their tale. Dusty's face was a mask of calm as he listened their retelling, with only the occasional twitch appearing on his face when he heard something that he disliked. Quill, being the more emotional out of the two, was not reluctant to express his outrage over their treatment. He did laugh out loud when they got to the point where Stride and Orion knocked out the Pangoro in not time at all.

"Ha! Serves that prick right!" he shouted.

"You went through so much," Dusty said, a sliver of sadness edging into his voice. "We were unable to assist you. I failed you as a member of this team."

"Hey, no you didn't!" Furn was quick to reassure the Sandshrew. "There was nothing you could have done. Even Stride couldn't have stopped what happened. Besides..." Furno's head lowered as a wave of depression emanated from him, "it's my fault that this happened."

"It was not," Zero said, glaring at the fire-type sternly. "There is no one to blame except for Aster."

"But if I had listened to you and treated that whole scenario like a trap..." Furno began to say only for Zero to cut him off immediately.

"We went over this. You just wanted to see your family, no one can fault you for that. Hell, if I had the opportunity to see _my_ family again, I'd do just about anything." A shot of melancholy stabbed at the former human's heart as he remembered, or did not, that he knew nothing of his past before he woke up in Shrouded Forest. He quickly pushed this pain down in favor of continuing reassuring his friend. "Aster was the one that manipulated you and used your parents to do it. You have nothing to be ashamed for. Besides, were back in one piece, aren't we?"

"Well yeah..." Furno muttered.

"Then chin up! Everything worked out in the end!" Zero said, forcing a wide smile to stretch across his lips. "No harm no foul after all."

Furno sniffed slightly before grinning at his friend. "Right...Thanks, Zero. I needed that.

Zero relaxed and allowed a true smile to form. "No prob-ACK!"

Zero shrieked in alarm as a pair of arms seemed to reach through the couch and wrapped around him. Turning his head, his eye twitched in aggravation when he saw a certain ghost type hugging him _through_ the couch. "Darn it, Bella!"

The Banette did not even look the slightest bit ashamed or sheepish. She just smiled at the fighting-type with her creepy, zippered smile. Zero groaned exasperatedly, resigning himself once more to his fate, thinking of having a talk with Bella about personal space sometime in the near future. His thoughts were broken suddenly by a jolt of emotions that were not his own.

Frowning to himself, Zero focused in on his senses, the black extensions on his temples raising into the air as he did so. Now focusing, he could feel a thick fog of sadness and anger permeating the air. Turning his head towards the source, Zero was surprised to see Quill with a scowl on his face.

"Quill? Are you okay?" Zero asked, worried that the typically cheerful Pokémon was in such a state.

"Huh? Oh! I was...I was just thinking," Quill said rather lamely.

"About..." Furno prompted upon noticing their friend's expression.

Quill sighed, tiredly and hunched forward. Now that Zero was focusing more on his friend, he noticed that his typically vibrant green body seemed almost duller by comparison. Like a plant during the fall. If that was not disconcerting enough, Zero saw bags under the grass-fighting type's, telling him that his friend had not been sleeping well.

"I've just...it's been hard, with you two missing and all," Quill said after several tense moment of silence. "I haven't...exactly been sleeping well because of that."

"It's more than that, isn't it?" Zero said. He could feel the hesitance sparking in the Quilladin's emotions, leading him to believe that Quill was not giving them the whole story.

Dusty glanced at Quill and asked, "It's that Chesnaught, isn't it?"

Quill swung his head towards the Sandshrew and glared heatedly. "Shut up!"

"What Chesnaught?" Furno asked curiously.

Glancing back at the two senior members, Quill realized he could not escape the question. He cast another glare at the ground type and sighed. "The reason me and Stride weren't able to help you was because we were stopped by a Pokémon. A Chesnaught."

"But Mystic didn't detect any Pokémon in the village besides my parents," Furno said, frowning afterwards. "That being said, how did she not pick up Aster?"

"Some psychic types are able to shield their minds and emotions, even from other psychics," Dusty answered. "This is what Mystic believed Aster implemented in order to hide himself."

"Smart," Zero reluctantly admitted, "but that doesn't explain how she didn't sense the Chesnaught."

Quill swallowed thickly before speaking. "You guys remember Morpheus right? You know, the Musharna that was kidnapping children through their dreams?"

"How could I forget," Furno said, barely suppressing a shudder. "That guy still gives me the creeps."

"Well, there is a thing that's...similar to that." Quill shifted uncomfortably. "I've looked it up and it's, more or less, a powered up hypnosis attack."

"How do you mean?" Zero asked.

"Well, you know how hypnosis is meant to put the target Pokémon to sleep?" The duo nodded. "Well, this form of hypnosis puts your _mind_ to sleep."

"But doesn't that happen when you fall to sleep normally?" Furno asked.

Quill opened his mouth to answer, but Dusty beat him to it. "No. The mind never sleeps. It's always active, keeping the body alive by enacting unconscious actions such as breathing. It is also because of this that we dream."

Quill scowled in annoyance. "Thank you, Dusty." He then turned back to Zero and Furno and continued. "Anyway, as I was saying this form of hypnosis puts the mind asleep, only giving the Pokémon enough mental capacity to breath on their own. Other than that, all the Pokémon influenced can do is follow the orders given to them by the one controlling them. They can't even eat or sleep without being told to."

"That awful!" Furno exclaimed, appalled that such a technique existed. Zero was not much better. A technique that completely stripped away a Pokémon's free will? It was sickening.

"They become nothing more than a puppet when their like that," Quill continued as if he had not heard Furno's exclamation. "They don't react to pain, hunger, exhaustion...Their just as slave to the one that controls them."

"That's..." Furno could not even find it in him to finish his sentence. He was completely disturbed over the idea of losing one's will like that. A shiver of fear shuddered through his body. _Would that have happened to us if we had been brought before the emperor? If we didn't agree to serve him, would he have turned Zero and I into puppets?_

Zero, much like his friend, was having very similar thoughts. He swallowed thickly, doing his best to ignore the goosebumps that were beginning to creep up his arms. "I can see how that would keep you up. I mean, that could have happened to us. No wonder you-"

"That's not it," Quill interrupted. He then became nervous as if second guessing his word choice. "I mean, I _was_ worried about that, but that's not why I wasn't sleeping."

"Then why?"

Quill's form seemed to curl in on itself as if Quill was trying to make himself look smaller. "The...The Chesnaught we were fighting...the one that was being controlled...it was my brother."

Both Furno and Zero openly gaped at those words, neither of them expecting this.

"A-Are you sure?" Furno asked. "I mean, there's bound to be other Chesnaught in Lyore. Plus your brother was a Quilladin when he went missing so how would you know what he looked..."

"Sorry, but there's no doubt that that was him," Quill said solemnly, cutting Furno off before he could finish. "On the back of his neck, he had a birthmark. Crass' birthmark."

"W-Well, a lot of Pokémon have birthmarks," Furno said, though it was clear that he was grasping at straws.

"A white mark in the perfect shape of a leaf?" Quill scoffed. "No. It was him. Without a doubt."

Furno gained a pained expression on his face. "Quill..."

"After all these years. After all this searching...just to find him in that state." Quill laughed mirthlessly, his eyes that normally sparkled with jovial eagerness were dull. "I spent all this time trying to find out what happened to him, but know...I wish I never found out."

Furno was at a loss for words. He glanced at Zero for assistance, but Zero felt just as lost. He did not need to focus on his senses to know that Quill was being torn up inside. If he was in Quill's place, he was not sure what he would do.

"We'll help him," Zero said, determination sparking in his red eyes. "I promise you, we'll help him. Somehow..."

"Right," Quill said, sounding anything but convinced.

Zero opened his mouth to reassure his teammate, but soon closed it. He had nothing to say other than spout some half-assed assurances that he could not even back up. Even if they miraculously found Quill's brother, they had no way of breaking him free of the effects of the hypnosis. All he would be doing by continuing to talk was give the grass-fighting type false hope at best.

Looking around at the rest of his team, he took in their somber expressions. Furno looked as if a million thoughts were racing through his head. He was clearly attempting to come up with a solution, but was coming up with nothing. Dusty still had a blank expression on his face, though Zero could see of frustration glittering in his eyes. Glancing behind him, he could see Bella scowling, whether at the fact that Quill's brother was practically a puppet or something else, he was not sure.

A sudden knock suddenly cut through the uncomfortable silence that had settled over the quintet. Almost sighing loudly in relief, Zero extracted himself from Bella's grip and made his way over to the door. Opening it, Zero was at all surprised to see Stride standing there.

"Stride," Zero said with a nod, moving to the side to allow the Greninja entrance.

"I just stopped by to make sure you and Furno are settling in alright," Stride said as he stepped into the room and headed to the lounge. When he got there, he paused upon taking in the somber atmosphere. "I can come back if this is a bad time."

Both Zero and Furno cast a concerned glance towards Quill, who raised his head and gave a clearly forced smile. "No, it's fine. We were just talking."

Stride nodded his head in understanding. "I see. You told them about your brother."

The smile immediately fell from Quill's face. "Yeah..."

Stride nodded his head, saying nothing. Furno, wanting to shift topics, turned to Stride. "So, what's been happening since we've been gone?"

Stride smiled lightly at the Chimchar's less than subtle attempt to change topics. He decided to oblige the fire type and said, "Nothing much really. I was mainly focused on trying to find you two to really do anything of merit. Of course, when we got back, Seth chewed us out for 'being incredibly foolish and not listening to me,'" Both Zero and Furno snickered at that, having figured that the Absol would say something along those lines, "but other than that, nothing really happened."

"Well, at least we don't have to catch up on any gossip," Furno said, mock depression filling his voice.

Stride chuckled. "I imagine that _you_ will be the gossip for the next week or so."

"Great," Furno groaned, dramatically slumping into the couch, mindful of his tail flame. "If we weren't already famous before, we surely are now."

"The woes of the famous," Stride commented dryly.

Zero found himself chuckling at the exchange. Just like that, the somber mood that had been suffocating the air was gone. Quill was even smiling, though it was small and rather tight looking. Both Dusty and Bella were staring blankly at Stride and Furno. Grateful that the depressing emotions were at least somewhat alleviated, Zero allowed his senses to expand slightly. He frowned when he felt a flicker of something depressing shoot through his senses.

The emanation Pokémon frowned as he allowed his senses to spread out more to pinpoint the flicker. It was not from Quill, that much Zero knew, and it felt unrelated to the current atmosphere. Zero also knew that it did not come from Bella or Dusty, Dusty because he rarely showed emotions and Bella because Zero could never feel anything from her, so that left Furno and Stride. He ruled at Furno as the emotion felt more aggravated than depressed, leaving Stride as the only valid source.

Focusing his senses towards the Greninja, Zero searched for the flicker. Stride always was a calm disposition. He hid the majority of his emotions under a mask of calm. Because of this, Zero, despite his sensing abilities, found it difficult to get a read on the water-dark type without focusing solely on sifting through his masked calm. However, Zero was able to find the flicker once more.

As he had ascertained, it felt like aggravation with spots of worry and dread. Zero almost equated this as Stride being upset with himself over his and Furno's capture, but that did not explain the dread he was feeling. While it was true that most Pokémon felt dread, especially given the state of the land, but those kind of emotions were buried further into a Pokémon's psyche. For them to be closer to the surface meant that something emanate was occurring.

Zero debated with himself for several seconds on whether or not he should ask the elder Pokémon about what was bothering him. Finally, curiosity winning out, Zero spoke up. "Stride?"

Stride, who was still conversing with Furno at that moment, turned to Zero. "Yes, Zero?"

"What's wrong?" Zero asked, deciding to get right down to it.

Stride frowned. "What do you mean. I'm fi..." He paused in his speech, regarding the Riolu with a critical eye. He then chuckled lowly, confusing everyone. "You think I would know better than to think that I could keep my emotions hidden from a curious Riolu."

Zero blushed hotly. He opened his mouth to apologize, but Stride merely raised a webbed hand.

"It's fine. You'd probably here it one way or another anyway, so it might as well be from the source." Stride walked around the couch and sat down next to Furno, prompting Zero to do the same. "Since you two were captured, when I wasn't trying to find you or laying awake at night with worry, I've been thinking. What Aster did was bold. Really bold. He not only got a false request into our division, but got it specifically to a team with the hopes to lure them into a trap. Since then, all requests are being screened and less and less are being taken."

Stride sighed heavily, leaning back into the couch. "With all this trepidation regarding requests, I fear that, by the time a team actually arrives to assist a client, it might be too late. We're supposed to be helping all of Lyore, but how can we do that if we can't help ourselves?"

Team Dawn Breaker sat/floated silently, unsure of how to respond. Stride, unconcerned over the silence, looked up at the ceiling. His eyes becoming slightly glazed as he fell into his own thoughts.

"So much has changed since I joined the resistance," he said. "Back then, we did every mission that was assigned to us, no questions asked. We did this to alleviate the pain and stress that the denizens of Lyore are constantly feeling, but now...Now things have gotten so bad where we can't even do that. We need something to end the emperor before things get even worse. We need the silver soul..."

Zero's brow furrowed at the mention of the silver soul. He recalled Stride mentioning it when he first met the duo and had them checked over by that Mismagius for it, but he never learned what it truly was. At the time, Stride had told them not to worry about it, but if Stride was mentioning it now...

"The silver soul?" Furno questioned, a look of recognition dawning upon his expression. "Isn't that the thing you had us checked out for when we joined the resistance?"

Stride glanced over the Chimchar and sighed. "Yes. It was."

"The silver soul," Quill muttered, more to himself than the rest of the group. "I've heard it mentioned in passing, but I have no clue what it is."

"Nobody does," Stride said. "The secrets of the silver soul have been lost for generations. Not since the time of the first king has the true nature of the silver soul been known."

"But if you don't know about it, how do you know it will help?" Furno asked.

Stride sighed once again an slumped slightly, holding up his head with his hands. It was then that they noted how tired the Greninja looked. Like Quill, deep dark circles traced the edges of the ninja Pokémon's eyes, however his seemed to be even more prominent. His eyes were bloodshot, the blood vessels in his eyes practically popping from his sclera. His entire form was tense, wound up with anxious energy. Even sitting still, Stride seemed to be vibrating, unable to relax even for a second.

The Greninja moistened his lips, allowing himself time to ponder before answering Furno's question. "...there was a prophecy made shortly after the first emperor passed. A prophecy that predicted an end to an unspeakable darkness that was gripping all of Lyore."

"You mean the emperor-er, _our_ emperor. Right?" Furno questioned, earning a nod from Stride.

"That is what I believe."

"Well, what does the prophecy say?" Furno questioned.

"Nobody knows."

"WHAT?!"

"As I said, the prophecy was made shortly after the first emperor's death. That was close to four centuries ago. The contents of the prophecy, as well as the specifics of the silver soul, have been lost through the passage of time."

"Hold on a sec!" Quill interjected. "You said that the prophecy supposedly is referring the emperor that we have now, right?"

"That's right."

"But you were talking about the darkness that's gripping out continent as if it existed when the prophecy was written."

"That is correct."

Quill's frown deepened. "But...but, that would mean that the emperor..."

"That the emperor is over three centuries old," Dusty finished, surprise flashing across his features.

"That would be a correct assumption," Stride said grimly, surprising everyone. "In the entire history of Lyore, we have only had two emperors, the first and our current one."

"But...But," Quill stammered. "How is that possible?! How could a Pokémon live that long?"

"It is just speculation as only his most trusted officials have seen him, but it is believed that he is a ghost type Pokémon," Stride said, steepling his hands. "Seeing as ghost types are suspected of living indefinitely due to the fact that they technically already dead, it is the most plausible explanation."

"Ghost types are immortal?" Zero asked, glancing at Bella.

"Yes. Aside from falling in battle, ghost types will not suffer from the effects of old age," Stride answered. "Ninetails are also known for possessing long lives, though nowhere near as long as ghost types."

"So the emperor has been ruling for that long," Furno mumbled. "Has the resistance really been fighting him for that long?"

Zero noted the sound of helplessness in his friends voice. He could not blame him for that, if the emperor truly has been in power for so long, even with the resistance fighting him every step of the way, how could they hope to stand a chance against him? Stride too seemed to take note of Furno's tone as he was quick to reassure the fire type.

"Well no. The resistance is a relatively new organization," he explained. "There have been several cells of rebels in the past, but they didn't come together to form a uniformed organization until close to fifty years ago. Since then, we have liberated almost half of the continent from his reign."

Furno nodded his head, feeling slightly better, but Zero still looked troubled. "But it's not enough, is it?"

Stride pursed his lips before speaking in a grim tone. "You're correct. It's not enough."

He sat up straighter and looked over at every member of Team Dawn Breaker. "I will not lie to you all, despite everything we have done, things are not looking good. The emperor's soldiers seem to be growing stronger with each passing day. When once we were pushing them back, we are now trapped in a deadlock and I fear soon they will overcome us. The only certain way of ending this terror is the silver soul."

Stride spoke with such certainty and passion that Zero wanted to believe him, but he was still skeptical. "But what does the silver soul do exactly."

"...it is unknown," Stride admitted. "As I said before, all details regarding the silver soul and its power have been lost with time to the point where many believe it to be nothing but a myth."

Zero frowned at that. "But you think that it's real."

"Yes, I do," he said without hesitation. A spark of fire lit up the elder Pokémon's tired eyes, if only for a second. "I know in my very soul that this power exists. That is why I am constantly looking for it. When I took you to the Groudon Division, to meet Fafnir? It was because they uncovered an ancient tome within the dunes. After spending some time attempting to translate it, the historians there determined that it had something to do with the silver soul."

Several sets of eyes widened at once. Seeing this, Stride nodded his head. "My point exactly. You can see why I, when I was informed of this discovery, I was obligated to pursue this lead."

"What'd it say?" Quill asked eagerly.

"Sadly, not much was translated," Stride said grimly. "All that they were able to decipher was that the book spoke of the emperor and his fear of the silver soul."

"Darn," Quill clicked his tongue in frustration.

"Indeed," Stride said. "However, it is a start. I requested that they keep me informed over the state of the decoding, so if anymore is discovered, I will know."

"Do you really believe that the silver soul will help us?" Dusty questioned.

"Yes, I do," Stride answered, turning towards the Sandshrew. "I believe that this power will be key in ushering a new age of light for Lyore."

"But does it not seem...convenient?" Dusty asked, earning a frown.

"How so?"

"Well, you are putting all you faith in a power that may or may not exist," Dusty stated. "Not to mention that you were desperate enough to have both Furno and Zero checked in hopes of either of them possessing the ability. Do you not think that you are putting to much stock into what could be nothing more than a myth."

"Dusty!" Furno exclaimed, horrified that their teammate was being disrespectful like that to Stride. He made to say more, but Stride raised his hand.

"It's quite alright," he said. "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, however-" He turned back to Dusty, "-I am not putting all my faith in the silver soul. I am aware that there is a possibility that the silver soul may not exist, that is why I am fighting alongside the resistance instead of sitting on the sidelines. I know that, even with the silver soul, we all have to do our part if we want to win this war. That being said, I do believe the silver soul is a crucial part of our victory and I will explore every possibility when it is involved. As to my checking of both Furno and Zero, it is due to the circumstances of our meeting."

He glanced at the group for a second, pausing momentarily on Zero before continuing, "As you know, Zero used to be human, as such his very existence is shrouded in mystery. Even before I knew that he was human, I knew he was special, after all, he appeared in a flash of light in the middle of a forest with no memory. Even if he doesn't have the silver soul, I feel he will play an important role in the coming war."

Zero shifted anxiously in his spot. He honestly did not feel as special as Stride was making him out to be. Sure he was strong in his own right, but what good has that done him. He was horribly beaten by Aster and ended up captured along with Furno. It was not even him who freed them, that was Bella. His plan fell through and he could do practically nothing for his friend.

He took a glance at Bella and frowned when he saw a blank expression on her face. While this typically would not be anything of note, but the fact that Stride had just dropped the bomb about Zero being human made it odd. What should have shaken the world she stood on did not even cause a twitch of the Banette's mouth.

Before Zero could contemplate this anymore, a hand clapped him on his shoulder. Looking up, he was met with Stride's burning gaze.

"You may not think so now, but you will become strong," Stride said before glancing at the room. "All of you for that matter. You all have potential to be great, you just need to believe in your own capabilities. Learn of your limitations and exceed them. That is the key for true strength."

With that said, the Greninja gave the group a final nod before getting to his feet. He leaned back slightly, eliciting several loud pops from his spine as he did so.

"I best be off," he said, stifling a yawn. "If I don't get back soon, it will be another chewing out from Seth."

"Maybe you should try and get some sleep to," Furno murmured. While his voice was hardly above a whisper, Stride heard him. He looked down at the Chimchar and smiled reassuringly.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. You two, however," He looked pointedly at Zero and Furno, "I expect both of you to get some rest and at least two days without training or missions. Understood?"

Receiving twin nods, Stride smiled. He stepped around the couch and made his way over to the door. He had just opened it and stepped out into the hallway when a voice called out to him.

"Stride!"

The Greninja turned and saw Zero standing a ways behind him. "Yes, Zero?"

The former human shifted his feet in a nervous manner, unable to meet Stride's gaze. "Do...Do you know where Orion is? I wanted thank him...for helping us and all..."

Stride could not help but chuckle at the Riolu's nervousness. Taking pity on him, he said, "He said that he would be heading back to the Groudon Division soon. You may be able to catch him if you hurry."

Zero nodded his head and muttered a quick 'thanks', before dashing off, much to the Greninja's amusement and slight chagrin.

-Resistance-

Orion was just about to exist the base when Zero found him. He called out to the Lucario just as he was about to leave, prompting him to stop. He turned towards Zero, eyes widening when he saw who it was that called him.

"Zero?"

The Riolu skidded to a halt next to his evolution, panting slightly having run all the way from two floors below. Taking a shallow breath, Zero steeled his nerves and looked up at the Lucario, only to falter and looked to the ground upon meeting curious red eyes.

After several seconds of trying, and failing, to get over his conflicting emotions and actually speak to the Lucario, Orion spoke, his voice holding concern. "Zero? Are you alright? Do I need to find Stride or somebody?"

That seemed to jolt Zero out of his stupor. He quickly shook his head in the negative and forced himself to speak, or rather mumble. "No...I wanted to...to thank you for helping in rescuing us."

Zero's words were met with silence. Slightly worried, Zero glanced up and was met with a blank gaze.

"Huh?" Orion questioned, blinking owlishly as if not understanding what Zero was saying.

Zero swallowed thickly and repeated in a slightly louder voice, "I wanted to thank you for finding me and Furno."

A look of surprise dawned across the Lucario's expression. "Oh, it was no trouble. Despite what you might think, I do care about what happens those in the resistance."

Zero flinched at that. The barb regarding how he all but shunned the Lucario over his teachings was still fresh in Zero's mind. He stubbornly refused to see the Lucario's actions as anything other than a betrayal of his trust, even if his intentions were good, but now that the Lucario had gone out of his way to rescue him...

Orion peered down at the Riolu, curious over his actions. His eyes then widened in horror when he thought back to what he had just said. "Oh, Arceus! I didn't mean it like that..."

"It's fine," Zero interjected, stopping the Lucario's apology. "Ever since I learned about what final gambit truly does, I've been stubbornly holding onto this hatred towards you. I felt betrayed that you would keep something like that from me, and part of me just refused to forgive you for that."

Orion sighed, his expression softening. "You had every right to be angry with you. I know I would have been if someone taught me a potentially suicidal move. I taught you that move because I could see you conviction and loyalty for your team. You would sooner die than abandon them."

"Yeah and look where that got me," Zero scoffed before he could stop himself.

Orion's furrowed his brow. "What do you mean by that?"

Zero sighed, slumping in his spot. Realizing that he could not avoid it, he resigned himself to telling the Lucario about the specifics of his own capture. "Back when Aster was leaving with Furno, I confronted him." Zero winced slightly when he heard Orion inhale sharply. "As you can imagine, it didn't end well for me."

"You attacked _Aster_?" Orion demanded incredulously. "Are you insane."

"Loyalty for my team, remember," Zero commented sardonically. He ducked his head at the deadpan expression Orion gave him. "Anyway, he beat me, pretty badly at that. I thought he was going to kill me, but he said that he'd spare me as long as I stayed out of his way."

"I take it you didn't do that." It was not a question.

Zero shook his head. "I couldn't just let him take Furno. Furno's always been there for me. He was the one that found me in the forest when I lost my memory. He gave me my _name_." Zero chuckled darkly. "Right after we had that mission with Mifune about the importance of not needlessly throwing my life away. Guess I couldn't follow his lesson."

"Zero," Orion crouched down so that he was eye level with the younger Pokémon. "There is nothing wrong with refusing to abandon a teammate. Mifune is a firm believer in living to fight another day, but that's because he's never been on a team. He doesn't know of the bond that exists between teammates and the lengths they are willing to go for each other. You shouldn't be ashamed of the bonds you have with your friends, no matter what anyone says."

"But what should I do if I'm in that kind of situation again?" Zero asked, his voice desperate and lost, sounding like what he was. A child thrust into a terrible situation.

"I can't answer that," Orion said regretfully. Zero lowered his head at the undesired answer, his ears drooping ever so slightly. A warm paw falling on his shoulder, pulled him from his thoughts and prompted him to look up again. Orion smiled kindly at the Riolu. "Only you can decide what you will do in the end. You can get suggestion after suggestion, but, in the end, the final decision rests with you."

He reached out with his other paw and tapped Zero over his heart. "Listen to that right there and it will never steer you wrong."

Orion saw, as Zero looked up at him, a new fire burning behind red eyes. Determination and resolve burned brightly in the young Pokémon. He nodded determinedly at the Lucario, earning a smile from the large Pokémon.

"Good," Orion said as he stood. "Well, this is where we part. Until we meet again."

He turned to leave when Zero's voice called him once again. "Hey, Orion?"

"Yes?" he asked, turning to face the Riolu once more, taking note of his sudden nervousness.

After a few seconds of contemplation, Zero took a deep breath and spoke. "If...If I ever need help with training or something, could I ask you?"

A wide grin broke out over the Lucario's face. "I would be honored."

Zero smiled back at the Lucario, feeling as if a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

An Addition and its Trials

Zero could not help but sigh at his current predicament. It had taken almost a full month for things to fall into at least some form of normalcy. For the first week that Zero and Furno returned, Stride all but banished them to their rooms, only allowing them to exit for meals. The duo never realized it before, but, after joining the resistance, almost all of their time was spent either doing missions or training for future missions. Now that they were confined to their rooms, they had more free time than they knew what to do with.

Quill and Dusty, being the loyal teammates that they were, stayed with the duo for the duration of their 'house arrest', making it at least somewhat bearable. The duo mainly regaled the duo in the tales of what happened while they were in captivity; from the internal crisis regarding news of the duo's capture, something that was _supposed_ to be kept secret, to whispers and rumors of the emperor's forces advancing and gaining ground. Those tended to be the more gloomy discussions and tended to end in solemn silence, but they passed the time.

When that week passed, Stride still forbade them from taking any missions, claiming that there was still the risk of soldiers scouring around for any sign of them. They were allowed to train however, something that the duo was immensely grateful for. Because of this, it was not uncommon to see all members of Team Dawn Breaker in the dojo almost every day, sometimes training with Monty and sometimes with each other.

With their house arrest terminated, Team Dawn Breaker threw themselves into training. Both Zero and Furno, no matter how they tried to hide it, were deeply affected by their kidnapping. Zero more than Furno due to the fire type not actually having to fight the Gallade before he was knocked out. Because of this, Zero felt obligated to become stronger than he was so no member of his team would ever be taken away from him. He constantly pushed his body too far, getting scolded by Monty, Stride, and Furno each time he did so, but Zero did not care. He had to get stronger for his team, even if it killed him.

Another thing that the team had to deal with was their sudden rise in popularity. As word of Zero and Furno's 'miraculous' escape from an emperor run facility, the duo, and their team by association, became practically legendary. Almost everywhere they went, the older members would stare at them with mixed looks of reverence, awe, and appraisement while the younger ones would often run up to them and grill them for information and give them looks of pure awe. Even Brier, who was ever the asshole, could not help but look at the team in awe.

Thankfully, Quill and Dusty were able to run interference for the duo, who by that point had become rather exhausted by the bombardment of questions. Even so, the group would occasionally notice some of the younger trainees would not so stealthily stalk the group, hoping to catch a glimpse of the now fabled team.

Quill took all the increased attention is stride, often boasting of the missions he assisted in and all of their adventures, and misadventures, that they had gone through since he joined. Dusty, met the questioning gazes and whispers with stoic silence, casting blank blue eyes at his watchers. Furno, like Quill, took much of the attention in stride, though he was much more humble in his acceptance, tending to add a bit more truth to many of Quill's exaggerations. Zero on the other hand, was a different story entirely.

Zero had never been very good with crowds. They always make him uneasy for whatever reason and all the increased attention would make him overly nervous at times. He wished that he was able to pull off a stoic personality like Dusty, but his inner nature was much more kind and tolerant despite his wariness. He would respond to questions and answer them to the best he could, hiding his own unease behind a wobbly smile that did not quite meet his eyes. At times where Zero's tolerance level was reaching its peak, Bella would appear, seemingly out of nowhere, and scare off anyone currently talking to him.

Zero chuckled internally at the thought of their ghostly friend. Bella, upon coming to the resistance, became stranger, if at all possible. Unlike in their prison cell, the Banette was not constantly hovering around him. As he could not read her emotions, Zero believed this to be because there was no immediate danger and she was content with leaving him alone for the most part. In fact, Bella was hardly seen by anyone outside of Team Dawn Breaker. She never associated with others outside the team (mainly Zero and Furno when it was absolutely necessary), and would often times just disappear and not reappear until much later and typically only in their rooms and in the dojo for training.

Speaking of training, Zero never realized just how powerful the ghost type was until their first training session. He had set up a spar between her and Quill to get a gauge of her strength. Part of Zero thought this was a little cruel because, at that moment, Quill was their strongest member, but Zero was quickly surprised over how well she handled herself.

Not only did she beat the Quilladin, she utterly trounced him, not taking a single hit herself during the entire fight. Due to that factor, Zero allowed her to wander around while the rest of them trained as she was a great deal stronger than them and they needed to catch up, though he did make sure they worked together on teamwork so that they could effectively fight together. However, her constant absence made tale of a 'malevolent spirit' watching over the young team, appearing randomly and cursing anyone unlucky enough to get in her way.

Zero was almost certain that it was Brier that started that ridiculous rumor, but he did not have proof to back it. It annoyed him how others believed such stupid rumors and even more so believed that Bella was evil. Sure she had a tendency to pop out at others, but a lot of ghost types did that. It was practically a staple of being a ghost type. It especially annoyed him when Bella was present when they would make such claims.

Bella, whether she noticed or not, gave no indication that these rumors upset her, not that Zero would no either way as it was almost impossible to get a read on her feelings unless she was happy or particularly angry with someone. No, Bella was just content with her self assigned role as Zero's 'ghostly guardian angel' and scare anyone who pushed him too far.

As he thought about these things, Bella made a low, guttural grunt that Zero had begun to associated with her inquiring of his current state of mind. While they was unable to understand the ghost type, Team Dawn Breaker had begun to make a very rough list of what each grunt and groan the ghost type made meant. So far, they were able to decipher whether the ghost type was asking for clarification, if she wanted something, if she was asking if there was something wrong, and if Bella herself was uneasy about something. It was short list, but it was growing constantly.

Zero quickly shot a reassuring grin to Bella, silently telling her that he was fine. He often wondered if Bella was able to sense _his_ emotions like he could do others, after all, she would always appear whenever he was becoming stressed out or particularly annoyed with someone. Hence why she was currently floating behind him with an impatient shiny Absol standing before them.

The Absol, who introduced herself as Weiss, was an interesting character. When she first approached him, Zero had assumed that she was just another person coming up to question him about what had happened during his imprisonment. He immediately sensed an inherent 'no-nonsense' type of personality from the disaster Pokémon, much like Seth though hers was more haughty than Team Surge's Absol. As such, Zero, having spent literally an hour in the mess hall retelling their story for what felt like the hundredth time, was tired. He wanted nothing more than to just curl up in his bed and sleep the rest of the day away, so when she approached him, he was annoyed and did not want to talk to the arrogant Absol. His annoyance led to the immediate appearance of Bella, who arrived with her usual 'back off or die' glare. Weiss, much to his surprise, simply cast an unimpressed glance at the Banette and preceded to ask Zero something that he never expected.

She asked to join his team.

Now, many Pokémon had asked to join Team Dawn Breaker, even before he and Furno escaped from right under the emperor's soldiers' collective noses, after all, they were a team personally trained by Stride who was a legend all by himself, but those had always been young trainees asking for a place on their team after they graduated from the training program. Zero would always tell them that they should wait until after they graduated to ask as they may find another team that they want to be a part of, Zero's own 'nice' way of telling them no. Other members had requested to join their team, sometimes even those that were already part of a team, but Zero turned them down in the nicest way he could. While he would give made-up or excuses as to why they could not join, Zero's true reasons were slightly selfish.

In reality, Zero did not want anymore Pokémon to join their team. He knew that this was dangerous and could be detrimental to only have a five Pokémon squad, but Zero liked the size of his team. He felt that they were all able to get to know each other on a more personal level when there was only a handful of them to manage at once. Adding more members, while advantageous in a battle setting, would break this dynamic in Zero's mind, not to mention how difficult it would be to command so many others. Thus came his current dilemma: how to say no to the Absol in front of him.

"Well, I'm flattered that you want to join us and all, but, at the moment, we're still on 'lock down' and will most likely not be able to leave the base until it's deemed 'safe' for us. If you joined, you'd just be stuck here for who knows how long," he said, trying his best to sound sincere.

Weiss, narrowed her teal eyes at Zero, causing him to shuffle uneasily a bit. "Even so, you are still able to train in the dojo, which you have been doing for the past month," she said evenly. "As such, even if you are unable to leave the division, I would not be 'stuck' doing nothing."

Zero cursed inwardly, but kept up his smile. "That is true, but that would be no different than what you've been doing, no? Most join teams in order got out on missions and there's no telling when you'll get that with us."

"You already said that," she said.

"I know, but-"

"As I said, even if I will be unable to leave the division for missions, training with others has been proven beneficial time and time again, something that you obviously know as you and your team are almost always in the dojo."

Zero inwardly grimaced, his smile becoming slightly strained. _Looks like I'm gonna have to change tactics._

"Why do you want to join Team Dawn Breaker?" he asked aloud. "There are plenty of other teams in the division, many of which are a lot stronger than us, so why us?"

The disaster Pokémon raised a questioning brow, her eyes flashing with some emotions Zero could not place. "I see, that's what this is," she said after several seconds of silence.

"This is what?" Zero questioned. While he spoke calmly, inside he was freaking out thinking that she had realized that he was trying to push her away from joining the team..

"I imagine, since you and your teammate returned from your captivity, many Pokémon have been coming to you and requesting to join for the sole reason that you have gained celebrity status," she said, causing Zero to let out an inaudible sigh of relief. "I can assure you that I am not like them."

She lifted her head ever so slightly, puffing out her chest at the same time in a prideful and confident manner. "Unlike those fame mongers, I can actually hold my own in a fight," she said in a boastful tone. "I have been trained since shortly after I hatched, making me highly proficient in combat as well as a good tactician. While I am confident that I can join many of the stronger team in the division, it would be foolish of me to join one that is so strong that they take missions that far exceed my abilities. As such, I have come to the conclusion that Team Dawn Breaker is the most suitable option for me at this time."

Zero felt is mind reeling slightly at the overflow of information. He felt slightly insulted as she stated that she basically _settled_ for his team. In fact, his blood was boiling slightly at being seen as nothing more than a compromise of someone who he did not even want to join his team.

Bella, using whatever uncanny way she has of sensing Zero's emotions, growled menacingly, floating off the ground to give herself even more height. Her eyes began to glow with a pale pinkish glow and the area in her immediate vicinity seemed to grow darker. Weiss gazed up at the Banette and scowled.

"You're not scary," she said dryly. "For Team Dawn Breaker's supposed 'Malevolent Spirit', your intimidation skills are lacking. Good enough to scare off hatchlings, but nowhere good enough to scare someone of my caliber."

Unfortunately, that appeared to be the wrong thing to say as Bella instantly gained an affronted expression on her face. Her eyes flashed with an emotion that Zero could only believe to be anger towards the snooty Absol. He had to act quickly before the ghost type _literally_ tore into the shiny Pokémon.

"I can see where you're coming from," he said, taking a deliberate step in between the two females, "you want to join a team that isn't too strong for you and you don't want to join a one where you'll be more or less carrying the team."

"Exactly," she said. Zero could hear a very soft sigh of relief, making his guilt bubble up more.

"I understand all that, but why Team Dawn Breaker of all teams?" Zero asked.

"Besides the fact that you completed two S-rank missions..."

 _Dammit Quill. You just_ had _to tell everyone, didn't you?_

"...you were also trained by Stride, one of the most powerful Pokémon in the _entire_ resistance. That proves that he had to have seen something in you for him to deem you worthy of his time."

Again, Zero felt slightly insulted. He quickly pushed this down and tried something else. "You really want to join us, even after we've encountered someone like Aster _twice_ in the few months we've been a team? He's a very dangerous Pokémon and, if you join us, you run the risk of encountering him too."

"Danger is a constant in this line of work," she countered. "No matter what team I join, I run the risk of encountering soldiers. That is why I wish to join a team that at least stands a chance against such foes."

"While that's true, it's still-"

"Why are you so against me joining?" Zero paused and blinked stupidly.

"Huh?"

"Why are you so against me joining your team?" Weiss repeated, eyes narrowing at the former human. "You've been giving me nothing but try and dissuade me from joining since I asked to join. Why?"

"I haven't been dissuade you," Zero denied.

"Yes you have," she said rather waspishly. "You've done nothing but that since we've started talking."

"I-"

"Either say yes or no. It's as simple as that!" she snapped, cutting Zero off before he could finish.

Zero grimaced slightly at the tone. Behind him, Bella started growling again, but he raised a paw to stop her from attacking. The Absol was right, she deserved a straight answer instead of being jerked around over the possibility of being permitted to join his team. Almost instinctively, he stretched out his senses and took not of a very small wisp of hurt and doubt in her own self-worth.

Zero instantly felt guilty over causing such emotions, no matter how small, to have crept into the Absol. Despite her pompous and arrogant facade, it was clear that she had some doubts and nervousness about her own ability, making her slightly more likable in Zero's books. That being said, while he did not truly want her, or anyone else for that matter, to join his team, he felt that she at least deserved some form of explanation.

"Look...I'm not exactly used to the whole 'requesting to join the team' thing," he said carefully, deciding to at least tell her a half truth. "Quill all but forced his way onto the team, Dusty was a wild Pokémon who decided to submit to us, and Bella-" he glanced at the Banette who was still glaring at the dark type, "-she kind of just showed up and helped me and Furno escape from the emperor's soldiers. We've never really received any formal requests to join our team until recently, and, to be honest, I'm not sure how to go about all this."

"I can help with that!" she said eagerly. "I, along with my expertise in battle and tactics, am a great judge in character. I can assist you in ascertaining whether or not a potential candidate is strong enough to join."

 _Geez, she's really putting herself on a pedestal,_ Zero thought to himself. _The again, I suppose one would have to do that in order to convince someone to let them join their team._

Still pondering to himself, Zero glanced at the Absol. She still had a haughty expression on her face, but Zero could sense the uncertainty and slight desperation clawing to the forefront of her emotions. She really wanted to join. Resolve crumbling, Zero sighed resignedly.

"Okay, how about this," he said. "You can join our team-" she immediately perked up at this, true happiness poking through her pompous mask. She opened her mouth to say something, but Zero plowed on, "BUT-" he said, causing her to freeze, "this will be something as a trial run. You will join us for training and missions, whenever we get them, and do any task that the team will do, but it will be for an undetermined amount of time. In that amount of time, we will see how you interact with the team and what you will bring to the team. When your trial run ends, and you have impressed not only me, but the rest of the team, then you will become a full member. Is that something you are willing to do?"

Weiss was silent for a while, apparently thinking Zero's ultimatum. It was clear that she had expected to be able to join immediately and the thought of a trial run seemed somewhat untasteful for her. However, she seemed to realize that this was the best option she could hope for and relented to Zero's stipulations.

"That's fine," she said, trying to keep her voice from sounding put off. "I accept your terms."

Part of Zero had wanted her to say "no", giving him an excuse to deny her admittance onto the team, but a deal was a deal. _And who knows,_ Zero thought. _She might be a good addition to the team._

He smiled welcomingly at the shiny Absol, pointedly ignoring Bella's growls of displeasure. "Then welcome to Team Dawn Breaker."

Weiss smirked smugly, but Zero could feel an intense relief flood through her. He internally sighed. _Something tells me this is going to be a trying trial run. I hope the others are okay with this._

-Resistance-

"So _who_ is this?" Quill questioned, squinting at their 'new' member.

Zero sighed. "This is Weiss. She is...a prospective member of the team."

"It is a pleasure to meet you all," she greeted, bowing her head. "I am grateful for this chance to work with you all and I hope that I am able to prove myself to all of you and become a full member of Team Dawn Breaker."

"Uh huh," Quill said, sounding unconvinced. "Hey, Zero. Can I talk to you real quick in private?"

Before the former human, Quill had already grabbed Zero's wrist and half led, half dragged him into Zero's room and closed the door with a distinctive slam.

"Hey! What's the big idea?!" Zero snapped irritably, pulling his limb free from his fellow fighting type's grip and massaging it slightly.

"Are you out of your mind?" Quill demanded, eyes flashing with anger.

Startled by the venom in his friend's voice, Zero grew confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Why they hell are you letting herjoin the team?" Quill growled through clenched teeth.

If anything, Zero grew even more confused. "Well she asked and she seemed capable, so I gave her a chance. Look, if you're upset that I didn't ask you guys if it-"

"That's not it!" Quill snapped, effectively cutting Zero off. "My problem is that it's _her_ that you let onto the team."

Zero frowned at that. "What do you mean? What's wrong with her?"

"She's a pain!"

"That's not very nice," Zero said. "Sure she somewhat arrogant, but that's no reason to be so hostile."

"Do you _not_ know who she is?!" Quill exclaimed.

Zero gave the grass-fighting type a deadpan stare. "All I know is that she's a slightly arrogant, shiny Absol. You know full and well Furno and I weren't part of the trainees."

"Right, right. Sorry," Quill soothed, albeit impatiently. "Look, she was part of the trainee class that me and the others were in before we graduated."

"I figured as much," Zero commented dryly.

"Will you let me finish?!" Quill snapped impatiently. Getting a nod from the former human, he continued. "Anyway, I know from experience how much of a pain she can be, since I've been in classes with her since I started at the resistance and let me tell you, she's a nightmare. Every test we took, every spar, every single thing we did, she aced. Everything that our instructors put in front of her was completed with the simplest of ease, like it was nothing but simple addition!"

"Seriously?" Zero asked incredulously. "That's why you don't like her? Because she was _good_?"

"No!" Quill exclaimed. "It's not that, it's how she acted because of it!"

"I don't follow."

Quill sighed in aggravation. "Look," he said, speaking slowly and meaningfully. "Every time she did those things, she would act superior to everyone else. She constantly belittled all of us, claiming that we'd never be as good as her and we we might as well drop out of training."

Zero's eyes widened in surprise over this new information. While he had seen that the Absol as arrogant, but he never pegged her for a bully. _Having someone like that on the team would do more harm than good, even if she is strong. That being said, her emotions seemed sincere enough..._ he thought, hardly hearing Quill as he continued to speak.

"...not to mention she would constantly tell us we were doing things wrong in that condescending voice of hers," Quill raved, to caught up in his own rant to notice that Zero was only half listening. "She _claimed_ that she was trying to help us so that 'we don't bring embarrassment to the resistance.'" Quill scoffed. "Yeah right. It was just an excuse to act better than the rest of us! Did you know, when we were first starting out, she-"

"Okay, I think I get it," Zero interjected, coming out of his thoughts. "I see where you're coming from, but let me ask you something."

"Shoot."

"When was the last time you talked to her?"

Quill tilted his head. "Huh?"

"When was the last time you talked to her?" Zero repeated. "I mean _really_ talked to her, as in to the point where you could tell what her personality was."

"Well...not since I joined the team," Quill confessed.

"So you don't know if she changed since you last encountered her?" Zero questioned.

"A Kecleon can't change its stripes," Quill sneered stubbornly.

Zero looked at him blankly. "Huh? What do Kecleon have to do with anything?" he questioned, not understanding why Quill would bring up Kecleon when they were talking about Weiss.

Quill sighed tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose. "It's an expression, Zero. Seriously, sometimes you're worse than Dusty," he muttered under his breath. "Look," he looked the Riolu dead in the eye, "what I'm trying to say is that Pokémon don't change. Well, personality wise, since we obviously can change through evolution."

Zero frowned again. "I don't believe that," he said. "I mean, look at Dusty. He was a wild Pokémon before he joined our team."

"That's different," Quill argued.

"Is it?" Zero asked in a tone that clearly stated he did not believe Quill.

"Yes," the spiny armor Pokémon hissed. "All we did was give him intelligence. The personality that he gained due to that has not changed. Heck, most wild Pokémon turned civil, like Dusty, act like mindless Golurk."

"Yet he shows emotion now, albeit rarely," Zero countered, not mentioning that he did not know what a Golurk was. "That's proof that he's changing."

"Look, Zero," Quill said slowly as if he were trying to reason with a stubborn child, "not trust me when I say that she has not changed. She is still the same stuck up princess that she was when we first started training."

Zero closed his eyes and breathed out through his nose, an action that Quill recognized as Zero was entering what he liked to call 'boss-mode'. "Quill," he began, "while I do trust you and your opinion is important me, I can't help but feel that your previous experiences with Weiss are clouding your judgment. While I agree with you, she is rather arrogant, I felt her emotions while she was talking."

Quill, who had opened his mouth to argue, silenced himself at that. He knew that reading the emotions Pokémon was something that Zero was quickly becoming an expert that. As he was, Zero was at such a level that he could read Stride's emotions when he was not actively guarding them.

"She was prideful, exceedingly so, but I sensed something deeper in her," Zero continued. "I could sense her nervousness and desperation and, when I said yes, relief."

"So what?" Quill questioned, unable to keep his silence. "She could have just been nervous that she would be denied because of her attitude."

"Or she could have been genuinely nervous about asking to join someone's team," Zero countered. "Even I can't know for sure. While I'm not a fan of adding her, or any Pokémon for that matter, to the team, I can't argue that we need to do that, so I'm giving her the chance to prove herself."

Quill scowled down at the floor, the mere thought of having to work with the pompous Absol leaving a foul taste in his mouth. He could see the logic in Zero's words, but that did not mean he had to like it or agree with it!

"Quill." The grass-fighting type looked and met Zero's piercing red eyes. "I don't need my emotion sense to tell you are against the idea, but until she proves herself to be more of a hindrance than a benefit, can you at least attempt to act civil with her?"

Quill's scowl deepened. He did not want to work with her. She was nothing but a nuisance back then and he was sure that she still was. He would much rather have anyone else on their team than her.

"Quill," Zero pressed.

"Fine, fine," he relented reluctantly. "But when you see she's nothing more than a pest, I reserve the right to say 'I told you so!'"

A small grateful smile appeared on Zero's face. "That sounds fair."

Quill grinned to, despite his annoyance over the situation, however, when Zero turned to open the door, his smile immediately fell. _Zero might believe that she's changed, but I know better,_ he thought. _It's only a matter of time before she shows her true colors._

With that final thought in mind, Quill followed Zero out of his room and back into the lounge. Both fighting types immediately took note that Weiss was speaking to Furno, who appeared to look slightly overwhelmed and uncertain. Bella and Dusty were off to the side, looking at the Absol with a glare and a blank expression respectively. Before either of them could question what was going on, a knock sounded at their door.

"Yo, Team Dawn Breaker!" A familiar voice called. "Let me in already!"

Zero did as instructed, opening the door to reveal Bolt, smirking mischievously. "Hey, Zero!" he said. "I've got good news!"

"What is it?" Zero asked, slightly wary.

"As of today, Team Dawn Breaker is cleared to take missions."

"Seriously?!" Furno asked, as he and the rest of the team came over to stand before the Manectric. "We can go out again?"

"Yes, though there are stipulations," Bolt said.

"What kind of stipulations?" Weiss asked, gaining Bolt's attention.

Not recognizing the Absol, Bolt asked, "Who are you."

Weiss lifted her head high and puffed up her chest. "I am Team Dawn Breaker's newest prospect," she said proudly.

Hearing this, Bolt lifted a brow and sent sidelong glance at Zero. "Alrighty then," he said. He sounded slightly uncertain, but he quickly hid it and answered the question. "Anyway, because Stride is still worried about soldiers still looking for Zero and Furno, he assigned you with a keeper."

"A keeper?" Quill asked, crossing his arms. "You mean a babysitter?"

"No, not a babysitter. A keeper," Bolt said cheerfully. "They will come with you on missions, but they won't interfere unless a soldier appears. It's just a precaution," he added, seeing the team's expressions. "After all, we don't want any of you getting captured again, would we?"

"I guess," Furno said, frowning in dislike. "So who's our keeper."

Bolt did not answer vocally. Instead he struck a very dramatic pose, taking on a faux haughty demeanor. Furno blanched.

" _You're_ our keeper?" he asked tonelessly.

"You don't need to sound so excited," Bolt said cheekily. "And I've go even more good news! I've already picked out your mission for tomorrow!"

The blank stares from the male members, and the confused glanced from the females were all that answered the discharge Pokémon. He laughed awkwardly. "What's with those faces?"

"Last time you picked a mission we ended up getting our asses kicked by that Throh," Quill deadpanned.

"Ah, come on," Bolt laughed, "that mission is tradition. I promise, this mission is a _lot_ better."

"Riiight," Zero drawled, not believing the Manectric for a second.

 **Author's Note:**

Sorry this chapter came out late. I had a bunch of papers and an exam to study for last week so I was not able to update. I'm hoping that I will be able to update at my usual rate after next week when I'm done with this semester, but we'll see. Thank you all for reading my stories and feel free to leave a review.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Weiss' Epiphany

 **Fairwind Meadow F1**

As it turned out, Bolt did not choose some dark, decrepit place for their mission like the group had believed. On the contrary, the place, at first glance, appeared pleasant. The entire dungeon was covered in lush green grass that shimmered with perpetual morning dew and multiple bushels of vibrant flowers growing in random patches. Large twisted trees grew inches apart from one another, serving as the maze's walls. Large pink blossoms grew from the trees, their petals flying through the air on the occasional breeze.

"Whoa, this place is beautiful," Furno gaped in awe.

"That it is," Bolt agreed, smiling at the fire types antics. "Out of every mystery dungeon I have been in, this one has always been a favorite of mine."

"I've heard of this dungeon," Weiss interrupted. "This dungeon, while well known for its beauty, is also highly revered for its large amount of fairy type Pokémon. They are said to be attracted to the tree blossoms and become very hostile when Pokémon get too close." She glanced at Zero and Quill before adding, "That means we will have to precede with caution."

"What do you mean?" Zero asked confusedly.

Weiss' answering expression made it seem like Zero had murdered her best friend. "Are you serious? How do you not know?!"

"Know what?" Zero asked warily.

"Fighting types like you and Quill, as well as dark types like me, are weak to fairy types!" she exclaimed, not believing that the rest of them did not know this. "Any fairy type attack that hits you will to a massive amount of damage!"

"Oh, well...okay then," Zero said awkwardly. "We'll just have to be careful and push through them."

"Understood," both Furno and Quill said in unison. Bella, being gave a grunt in agreement and nodded her head. Weiss, however, was not impressed by Zero's choice in tactics.

"Are you kidding me?!" the shiny Absol thundered. "That's it?!"

"What now?" Quill groaned.

"You _just_ learned that this dungeon is full of Pokémon who have a distinct advantage against two of our team members and you just say 'be careful'? Are you kidding me?"

"What's wrong with that plan?" Zero questioned, eyes narrowing slightly.

"We need more of a plan than simply _being careful_ ," she snapped irritably. "We need berries, orbs, scarves..."

"Weiss," Zero interrupted. "We have plenty of items and going back to the division to plan would be pointless and waste time that the client does not have."

"Well we should have been planning last night," Weiss grumbled under her breath.

Zero ignored the dark types grumblings and looked around their surroundings, deciding on a direction take. Bolt stayed quiet during Weiss' outburst, content with simply observing. Now he eyed both Zero and Weiss with an unreadable expression on his face. It appeared that he was thinking of something, but he did not state them out loud.

"Let's head this way," Zero said, pointing to the right. Receiving nods from his team (though Weiss did so reluctantly) and Bolt, the group headed further into the dungeon.

"What floor is the client on again?" Quill questioned.

"Floor eleven," Bolt said. "The client is a young Zorua who was reported missing by their parents a few days ago."

"A Zorua?" Weiss questioned. "If they have truly been lost within this dungeon for that long, it is more than likely that they have died."

"How could you say that?!" Furno exclaimed, whirling around and glaring at the Absol with a mix of horror and fury.

"I'm merely stating facts," Weiss said matter-of-factly. "Zorua are dark types, like myself, and a young one at that. They would have no chance of survival in a dungeon like this."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Bolt interjected before Furno could retort. "As I'm sure you know, the Zorua line are not _just_ dark types. They have their illusions."

"Illusions?" Zero asked curiously.

"All Zorua and Zoroark have the ability to cast illusions on themselves and the nearby area," Weiss lectured, glaring slightly at Zero before turning back to Bolt. "Even if that's the case, a Zorua's control over their illusions is shaky at best. There is little chance that they're still alive."

"You'd be surprised by what a Pokémon is capable of when their life is at stake," Bolt stated, an amused smile on his face.

"That's all I need to hear," Zero said. "We'll go through the dungeon and look for this Zorua."

Weiss looked like she still wanted to argue, but never got the chance when a shrill cry came from one of the flower bunches. Floating towards them was a diminutive creature with a yellow flower in their hands. Its torso was a snowy white with a green 'stem' that acted as the lower portion of its body. Two, small, green stems served as its eye lashes and its flat ears hung off the side of its head like pigtails.

"Flo~!" the creature cried, glaring adorably at the group.

"A Floette," Weiss recognized, tensing warily. "Be careful."

"What, of that thing?!" Quill exclaimed incredulously. He walked over to the creature, ignoring Weiss' shouts and started petting its head with a finger. "There's no way that this little thing could-"

Whatever Quill was going to say, was lost when the Floette gave a shrill screech. He turned just in time to see the small fairy swing its flower and create a large tornado of pink winds that rushed towards him. Before Quill could react, he was sucked up by the wind and flung into the air.

"Quill!" Zero exclaimed before rushing towards the Floette. Reaching the smaller Pokémon, Zero pulled back his arm and slammed the fairy type with a force palm. After a flash of light, the Floette gave out a cry of pain, its concentration fading along with the tornado of wind.

The pink winds dissipated, depositing Quill roughly on the ground. "Urgh," he moaned in both pain and disorientation from the attack.

"Idiot," Weiss muttered before leaping at the Floette herself.

Just as the diminutive fairy was getting up, Weiss was already on top of it. Before it could even react, Weiss' claws had already raked across its body with a brutal slash attack. The Floette gave a final cry before losing consciousness.

"Ugh...why is the world spinning?" Quill slurred, still dizzy.

"Are you _completely_ out of your mind?!" Weiss yelled, stomping over to the Quilladin.

"Wha...?" Quill questioned, dizziness fading ever so slightly.

"What kind of idiot walks up to a _wild Pokémon_ and pets it like a newborn?!" Weiss screeched. "Do you know how dangerous that is?"

"I was fine," Quill grumbled, flushing slightly.

"It's not _fine_ ," Weiss snapped. "All Pokémon in a mystery dungeon are dangerous, no matter how big or small. That was the first thing they taught us in training!"

Quill's face was becoming steadily redder as his anger grew. Seeing this, Zero immediately stepped between the duo. "Okay, okay. Let's all calm down," he placated. "I understand your anger, but-"

"There are no 'buts'," Weiss hissed, interrupting Zero. "This idiot has no place in a dungeon if he forgets the first rule of exploring!"

"Quill has been with Team Dawn Breaker for a long time and I trust him with my life," Zero said firmly. "While, I admit, it was a rookie mistake, I think that he has learned his lesson..."

"Boy haven't I," Quill grumbled under his breath.

"...and he is better because of it," Zero continued as if Quill hadn't spoken. "If you have a problem with Quill being on the team, than that's too bad because that's _my_ decision."

Weiss held the Riolu's gaze for a while longer, glaring as if she were trying to get Zero to change his mind, but he stood firm. She eventually broke eye contact and turned away with a scoff. "Well, maybe your decision is wrong," she muttered under her breath.

"What was that," Zero asked in a clipped tone.

"Nothing," she lied. "Let's just go."

Zero narrowed his eyes at the disaster Pokémon, clearly not believing her, but decided against saying anything. "Right... Let's," he finally said, leading the group further into the dungeon.

-Resistance-

 **Fairwind Meadow F5**

The next few floors offered little trouble to the group besides the occasional wild Pokémon. Much like the Floette, many of the fairy types had an almost innocent and harmless appearance, making it hard to take them seriously. They did take Weiss' warning to heart and were cautious around the dungeon's occupants and avoided their attacks when they could. Unfortunately, while the dungeon was not posing much risk as of yet, things _in_ the team were not going as smoothly.

Weiss was, for lack of a better word, abrasive. She was very vocal about the 'proper way of doing things'. She constantly criticized how the team went about fighting wild Pokémon and trekking through the dungeon itself.

"No, don't use that move!" Weiss shouted as Quill used pin missile on a Snubbull. "Fairy types are resistant to bug type moves!"

"Will you just worry about yourself!" Quill shouted back, avoiding a bite attack from the Snubbull.

"Hopeless!" Weiss grunted before launching a powerful razor wind at the fairy type, knocking it out. "Your welcome," she said snidely.

Instead of being grateful, however, Quill whirled around with a furious expression on his face. "What the hell?!" he shouted. "I had it!"

"If you had it, you wouldn't have been using non-effective attacks!" Weiss shouted back.

Quill stepped towards the shiny dark type, leaning slightly to glower at the Absol who stared right back. "I don't need you to fight my battles. I can handle myself!"

"I am merely assuring that the mission goes smoothly without serious injury," Weiss said back, an ugly sneer on her muzzle. "If you wish to endanger yourself by carelessly throwing yourself against opponents with no plan then do it by yourself and don't drag the rest of us into it!"

Off to the side, Zero, Furno, Dusty, and Bella were all staring at the scene with tired and annoyed expressions. "Geez, this is worse than when Dusty first joined," Zero muttered with a sigh.

"Yeah, but this time it's not just Quill being a jerk," Furno said, crossing his arms. "I mean did you hear how she was bad mouthing Bella?"

Zero winced at the memory. Zero had been hit by a moonblast from an Aromatisse that had snuck up on him a few floors earlier. Zero had taken a lot of damage and was temporarily incapacitated, and that set Bella off. She flew in like a Golbat out of hell and decimated the fairy type in a matter of seconds. She then, seeing Zero in pain, had raided the pack, tossing various things out of it in search of a healing berry.

Weiss had seen that and had flipped out. She started ranting over how careless Bella was being with their items and how she was doing more harm than good. When Bella did not respond, Weiss went on to call her an 'idiotic cretin' that was more of a liability to the team. This seemed to be enough for the Banette as she then attempted to attack the Absol out of sheer annoyance.

The rest of the team managed to hold the ghost type back, but this gave Weiss the opportunity to call Bella more names, which only made it more difficult to hold the ghost type back. Eventually, Bolt had to step in to keep the two from killing each other, making both girls fall back with a harsh glare.

Zero was pulled from his thoughts by Bella's growl of annoyance. It was clear that she still harbored some less than positive feelings regarding the Absol. Zero glanced at her and the rest of his team and sighed. He walked over to the quarreling duo and physically put himself between the duo.

"That's _enough_!" he said rather irritably. "We are on a mission, not a social gathering. If you have beef with one another, save for when we're back at the division!"

"My 'beef' is that this neanderthal insists on using moves that will do little to nothing against the Pokémon that live here!" Weiss hissed.

"Everyone has their own way of battling," Zero said.

"His _way_ involves unnecessary risk," Weiss argued.

"And that's his way," Zero stressed. "If that's how he fights then that's how he fights. If he gets hurt then its on him and he will adapt. He is not your responsibility. He's mine."

"Then why don't you do your job and make sure this team is doing what its supposed to!" she shouted.

Everything went quiet at Weiss' exclamation. "What was that?" Zero asked, breaking the silence.

Weiss' eyes widened, as if she just realized what she had said, but her gaze swiftly hardened. "I said you need to do your job as a leader," she said, her voice trembling ever so slightly. "If this is how you run your team, with members not knowing about type advantages or proper ways to engage in battle or proper behavior in a dungeon, then I'm surprised your team has lasted so long!"

Weiss was breathless after her rant, she glanced around her and saw that the other four members of Team Dawn Breaker were all staring at her in utter shock. Off to the side, Bolt attempted to look impassive, but even he could not keep the surprise from his own face. Weiss, almost fearfully, turned her head to face Zero and blanched at the blank look he was sporting.

"If that is how you feel, then you do not need to be part of the team," Zero said coldly. "This is how I run my team and if you don't like it, you don't have to be a part of it, but until this mission is over, you will follow me and my team and do as instructed. That means no bad mouthing my team or engaging in arguments. Is that clear?"

Weiss swallowed thickly, taken aback by this suddenly cold Riolu. Unwilling to show her fear, not that it mattered with Zero, she held her head high and nodded curtly.

Zero stared at her a second longer before giving a short nod. He turned away from the Absol, freeing her from his intense glare. "Let's get going," he said, addressing his team. "Every second we waste is another second that Zorua is in danger!"

They all nodded and followed the Riolu down another corridor. Bolt moved to follow, but stopped when he noticed that Weiss was still standing in the center of the room.

"Weiss," he called, causing the Absol to turn and face him. "Come on, let's go."

"R-Right," she said, her voice sounding strangely distant, as if she were thinking about something. Before Bolt could question it, she quickly rushed past him in pursuit of Team Dawn Breaker.

Bolt followed the Absol with his eyes before shaking his head. "This is going to end badly, I just know it."

-Resistance-

 **Fairwind Meadow F11**

Once again the group of six set off again, however, this time things were a lot more quiet. Weiss seemed to have taken Zero's words to heart and had not uttered a single word since the fifth floor. She would just go along with whatever Zero said. While it was nice, Zero could not help but feel that this silence was not because she finally 'got it'. He would constantly notice Weiss looking at him with a strange expression. Almost as if she were confused or trying to figure something out. Zero thought to read her emotions, but there was what almost felt like static around, making it difficult to feel anything above surface emotions. He chalked this up as due to her being a dark type, whom, as Zero learned, were much harder to read. Similar, ghost types were impossible to read as their aura was not exactly that of a living being.

However unnerved by this 'new' Weiss he was, Zero thought it best to ignore it and focus on the mission. So far they had explored a good portion of the floor, but still no sign of the Zorua. They had even taken to calling out to the missing fox, but all that got them were more Pokémon attacking them.

The group had been lucky thus far regarding attacking Pokémon thus far. Being fairy types, like Weiss said, they had a clear advantage over half of the group, however, the majority of the dungeon's occupants were not that powerful. While a good deal of them had landed several good hits on the team, forcing Zero, Quill, and Weiss to consume liberal amounts of berries, many of these attacks were brushed aside by the others. Furno in particular was barely harmed by these attacks and retaliated with powerful gouts of flames.

Bolt, ironically enough, went through the entire dungeon unharmed. In fact, whenever a wild Pokémon got within several feet of him, they would skirt around him without so much as a second glance. Without any Pokémon attacking him, Bolt would simply watch them fight, and make occasional comments. Not criticisms like Weiss, but the occasional suggestion or sarcastic comment (something that had not endeared him to the team). He would also observe the inner workings of the team. He had seen how Weiss had begun adding her two cents after every encounter with a wild Pokémon and how she had suddenly become silent. Like Zero, he chose not to comment but it was clear that the gears were turning in his head.

The group had just entered another room on the floor when they encountered the toughest Pokémon that the dungeon had to offer.

"Wiggly~!" A large, pink, rabbit-like Pokémon pranced into the room through the opposite hallway.

"A Wigglytuff?" Quill questioned, partially amused and partially wary.

"Don't let its appearance fool you," Bolt commented. "They are notorious for their ability to take an incredible amount of punishment and are able to dish it out as well."

Almost as agreeing with Bolt, the Wigglytuff gave a shrill cry before it became a painful, booming roar. The entire group winced in pain at the volume of the Wigglytuff's cry, pain arching through their bodies. The only one that was not effected by the sound was Bella, though she still covered her ears in an attempt to drown out the sound.

The noise finally died down, leaving the group with ringing ears. "That hyper voice is always annoying," Bolt whimpered, shaking his head.

Still holding his ears, Zero glared at the offending Pokémon and hissed, "Take it down!"

"Music to my ringing ears!" Quill shouted, slightly louder than necessary, and launched an energy ball at the offending balloon Pokémon. Just before the attack made contact , the fairy leapt into the air and seemed to hover for a second, inflating its body slightly to cut down on its weight. Quill's jaw dropped comically at the sight. "What the heck?!"

"Wigglytuff aren't called the balloon Pokémon for nothing," Bolt chuckled.

Zero's eyes narrowed at the Wigglytuff that looked way too smug. With a growl, Zero released a blade of blue winds at the pink rabbit. Just like before, the Wigglytuff leapt into the air to avoid the attack, but as it was floating back to the ground, Zero had sped towards it with quick attack. Shocked at Zero sudden appearance, the Wigglytuff audibly gasped, releasing the air that it had inhaled and fell back to the ground, stumbling as it had not anticipated its sudden change in fall speed. Just as the Wigglytuff regained its balance, Zero had already hit him with a force palm.

The flash of light from the force palm briefly lit up the room and the Wigglytuff stumbled back from the hit. Despite its stumble, the pink rabbit proved to be rather hardy and appeared more or less unfazed by Zero's attack. It glared harshly at Zero and raised its stubby arms in preparation to pummel the former human. Thankfully for Zero, he was quick on his feet. He dodged the Pokémon's furious slaps and slipped into the Pokémon's guard and delivered another force palm into its white belly.

Once again, the Wigglytuff stumbled and Zero moved in to capitalize on that. Shadowy energy cloaked his left paw, forming three long claws that were an inch away from scraping across the ground.

"No!" Weiss shouted out to Zero, but it was too late.

Zero lashed out with his clawed paw, but, to his surprise, the claws passed harmlessly through the Wigglytuff as if it were not even there. Completely shocked, Zero was left wide open for the Wigglytuff's counter attack. Before he could react, Zero was subject to a brutal assault of slaps, kicks, and punches. The attacks hurt, a lot, and the speed of the attacks created an almost comical cloud of dust and smoke around them. The assault soon ended with Zero being catapulted out of the dust cloud and sent sprawling over the grass.

"Oww," Zero groaned, getting back to his feet and glaring at the offending Pokémon.

The Wigglytuff bounced up an down, its furious glare betraying the rather funny action. It was just about to charge Zero when Dusty barreled into it with a rollout. Releasing a high pitched squeal, an a liberal amount of air, the Wigglytuff was jettisoned several feet back, landing onto its side.

"Are you alright?" Dusty asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Zero said, massaging his tender ribs. "Dang that hurt!"

"You wouldn't have been hurt if you hadn't acted so carelessly," Weiss said with a sneer, her previously cordial attitude towards the leader of Team Dawn Breaker evaporating. Without saying anything else, she fired a razor wind at the Wigglytuff before it could get up.

Not wanting to be out done, Bella rushed forward, offering a glare to Weiss as she passed, and took point in front of the normal-fairy type. She raised her arms, her elbows bent at her side, and waved them back and forth. As she did so, several balls of ghostly blue flame formed around her, circling her in a ring. She then brought her hands down in a throwing motion towards the Wigglytuff, the blue orbs following the motion and seemingly disappeared into the balloon Pokémon's body. A second later, the wild Pokémon was shrieking in pain as red hot flames sprouted out from nowhere, engulfing the Pokémon in flames before disappearing without a trace.

Unfortunately for the team, as soon as the flames faded away, the Wigglytuff came back with avengeance. It folded its ears down and inhaled deeply, preparing for a second hyper voice.

"Stop it!" Zero shouted, realizing the danger.

Both Furno and Quill shot out attacks in response to the leader's cry by sending out a flamethrower and pin missile respectively, but it was too late. Before the attacks could reach their desired target, an incredibly loud shriek was released by the Wigglytuff. The shockwaves that the cry generated hit the flames and pins, slowing their movement to a standstill before causing them to fade out. Meanwhile, the sound waves had reached the team and they were once more engulfed by the shrieks.

"BELLA!" Zero shouted to the only on that he knew was not experiencing pain. "STOP IT!"

Apparently hearing him, Bella moved to comply. Not affected by the shockwaves that the hyper voice was generating, Bella rushed forward and sucker punched the Wigglytuff with a sucker punch. Caught off guard, the hyper voice was subsequently ended and the normal-fairy type keeled over slightly from pain.

"We need to take this thing down. Now," Zero said the moment he could hear properly. "Any ideas?"

"Ugh," Weiss groaned in annoyance. "The only weaknesses that fairy types have are steel and poison!"

Zero's eyes flashed as an idea formed within his mind. "Dusty, hit it with a poison sting!"

Nodding his head immediately, Dusty rushed forward. When he was about a few feet away, he opened his mouth and shot out a shower of small purple needles at the Wigglytuff. The needles impacted against the Wigglytuff, breaking upon impact, but doing their job. It screeched in pain as the poison needles shattered against its body, spreading the poison all over its body. Its cries only intensified when a flash of fire erupted from its body.

"Attack it now!" Zero shouted, forming a vacuum wave.

At his command, all of them unleashed their own attacks upon the Wigglytuff, their attacks combining and exploding against the Wigglytuff. Tufts of grass and stray flowers were thrown in every direction and the Wigglytuff's form was completely shielded by the wall of smoke that came from the combined attacks. When the smoke cleared the Wigglytuff was on the ground, unconscious.

"Bravo," Bolt congratulated, padding over to the group. "A fine job. There's some room for improvement, but this was definitely good work."

"Good work? Good work?! That was anything _but_ good work!" Weiss suddenly exploded, earning everyone's attention.

"What are you talking about?" Quill questioned, his annoyance clear in his voice.

"I'm talking about your incapability to function as a proper team!" Weiss shouted, her already red face turning a shade darker.

"I am confused?" Dusty spoke up. "We defeated the target, how does this show incapability."

"Because you didn't do it properly!" Weiss exclaimed, not believing what she was hearing. "When you go up against a foe, you defeat them quickly and efficiently. That was neither quick or efficient! It took you several minutes to even _think_ of using a move that would give you an advantage! You-" She glared menacingly at Dusty, "-should have known better. You should have used poison sting the moment the Wigglytuff first appeared!"

"Okay, that's enough," Zero said, stepping in between Weiss and Dusty. "How we handle enemies is-"

"Oh, don't even start!" Weiss snapped. "You are the worst out of all of them!"

Zero's eyes widened in surprise, clearly not expecting this turn. He was too startled to even begin to form a response and Weiss was quick to jump on it. "Using an ineffective move against an enemy, a high level one at that, is not only foolish, but suicidal! You could have gotten worse than a simple play rough attack! You're _supposed_ to be a leader so start acting like it or you and your team will end up dead in a ditch!"

Just like several floors prior, everyone was surprised by Weiss' outburst and her blatant disrespect towards her leader. Zero himself stood stock still, completely taken aback, too much so to even offer up anything in his defense. It was clear that his emotions were at war within him and it was taking every once of will power to not let his emotions run rampant and branch out to everyone else.

The silence that ensued seemed stretched out for an eternity. With each passing second, Weiss' own anxiousness began to grow. She shifted awkwardly in front of the group, the stares directed at both her and Zero beginning to get to her. Glancing almost warily at Zero, she opened her mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by a new voice.

"A-Are you resistance members?"

They all turned back towards where they came in and they saw a Slurpuff tentatively step into the room. Seeing the group looking at it, the puffball shifted nervously. "I-I heard v-voices," they muttered, almost whispering. "A-Are you m-maybe here for me?"

Seeing Zero still somewhat stunned, Furno stepped forward. "Y-Yeah. We're Team Dawn Breaker," he said, sending a sideways glance to Zero. "Though, we originally came here looking for a Zorua..."

"Oh thank Arceus!" the Slurpuff exclaimed in relief. The fairy type jumped into the air with a back flip, a bright purple light engulfing its form. When it faded, in the Slurpuff's place was a small dark gray fox with red paws and piercing blue eyes. "I've been stuck here for days," the fox said. "Using my illusions for so long is really tiring!"

"You've been using your illusions for this long?" Weiss questioned in surprise.

"Yep," the now identified Zorua chirped, their voice slightly tired. "My parents say that my control over illusions is exep-ecer-exem-plary for someone my age."

"That's amazing!" Furno exclaimed, offering the tired dark type an apple who wolfed it down wholeheartedly. "It really came in handy."

"It sure did," the Zorua said excitedly. They then yawned loudly, their eyes drooping slightly. "Can we go now."

"Of course we can," Furno said, smiling softly. He turned to Zero who still had a far away look in his eye. "Zero?"

Zero jerked at the sound of his voice, his gaze narrowing in on Furno. "Right. Let's get out of here," he said, gesturing for Quill to grab an escape orb and teleport them out of the dungeon.

-Resistance-

After bringing the Zorua to their parents, the group made their way back to the Latios Division. The second the entered the familiar underground division, Weiss dashed off without so much as a backwards glance to the group, missing the concerned looks Team Dawn Breaker was sending their leader who had not spoken since the dungeon.

Weiss stormed away from the group, intent on getting to the training area to blow off some steam. "How could they be so incompetent?" she muttered to herself as she stomped down the steps of the division, scaring many of the younger members as she stalked by them. "How could I be so foolish as to think they were anything special. They're just like any other rookie team!"

She snapped violently at a young Clefairy as they accidentally bumped into her, causing the poor Pokémon to cry out in fear. "The legendary _Team Dawn Breaker_ ," she said mockingly. She scoffed in disdain. "What a joke. The stories _must_ be exaggerated. There's no possible way that a team like that could complete two S-rank missions!"

"You'd be surprised." Weiss whirled around and was met with the smirking visage of Bolt.

"B-Bolt!" Weiss gaped in open shock before she pulled it behind her mask of indifference. "What are you doing here?"

"Walk with me," was all he said as he started walking down the stairs. Confused and wary, Weiss tentatively followed the Manectric.

Weiss followed the electric type further into the division, past the living quarters, the hospital, the market place, even the dojo. By the time they reached the final floor, Weiss was fed up with the silence. "Will you tell me where we're going already?!" she finally snapped.

"Somewhere we will not be overheard," Bolt said, not looking at Weiss.

He eventually led them to a relatively secluded alcove. The silence that surrounded the duo was stifling for Weiss. Bolt just smiled benignly, apparently content with observing Weiss' growing restlessness. Finally, it became too much for the shiny Absol. "What am I here for?!"

Bolt remained silent for a while longer before he spoke. "I'm going to tell you a story," he said.

"A story?" Weiss deadpans.

"Yes, so listen up," Bolt said, giving the dark type a stern look. When Weiss made no other move to argue, Bolt continued. "This is the story of a young Frogadier and his resistance team that consisted of an Electrike and a Torchic much like yourself. They were seen as prodigies within the resistance. Their mission record was impeccable, their strength unparalleled amongst those in their age group. Everyone knew that the team would go far in the world."

"They sound like the perfect team," Weiss commented.

"And you wouldn't be the only one to think so," Bolt said. "They were revered, their exploits becoming almost legends with the younger generation."

"Sounds like Team Dawn Breaker," Weiss scoffed. "However, unlike them, this team seems to live up to all the hype."

"I wouldn't be too sure." Weiss frowned at the discharge Pokémon.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"While it's true that the team was incredibly gifted, things did not always work out," Bolt said. "As I said, their record was impeccable, but that changed when they took one mission."

"One mission?"

"It changed everything," Bolt said, suddenly distant. "That one mission..."

"What happened?" Weiss asked tentatively. "Where was the mission?"

Bolt turned his head towards Weiss, his gaze appearing to look through her. "It was a mission to Razed Ridge. A mission to escort a high profile Pokémon through to the dungeon to Corian."

"Corian?" Weiss asked. "That's one of the cities under the emperor's control. And isn't Razed Ridge that dungeon that separates the emperor's and ours."

"Correct on both accounts," Bolt said. "Razed Ridge acts as a bridge between the two sides. Going through either side will, if you get through the dungeon, spit you out deep in the other's territory."

That is why we have so many teams stationed on our side of the dungeon," Weiss realized. "so the emperor's forces cannot enter our territory."

"Yes, but it was not always like that," Bolt said. "Back then, Razed Ridge wasn't such a high sought after territory. The Emperor's influence had not spread as far as the dungeon, but the dungeon itself was still dangerous. The team went in confident in their ability to clear the dungeon and protect their client, but all the knowledge and strength they had meant nothing."

"What do you mean?" Weiss questioned. "If they had prepared properly..."

"They did," Bolt interrupted. "The prepared for several days, but even with all the time in the world for planning, but that means nothing against the unknown."

"What happened?" Weiss questioned, completely enthralled by he story.

"They met opposition."

"What kind of opposition?"

"The soldier kind," Bolt said. "One of the emperor's newest inductees."

"What were they?"

"A Kirlia."

"A Kirlia? Seriously?" Weiss asked, unamused.

"Yes a Kirlia that has since became one of the emperor's most fearsome soldiers. You may know them as Aster."

"They ran into Aster?!" Weiss exclaimed.

"Yes, though he was not nearly as well known as he is now," Bolt said. "Even so, he was dangerous. So dangerous that he single-handedly caused not only the team's first failure, but their most devastating loss."

"What happened?"

"The team was confident, after all, it was the three of them against a single Kirlia, what could possibly go wrong?" Bolt chuckled desolately. "A lot apparently as, not only was the team forced to leave, but their client was killed and one of their teammates was injured to the point where they could never recover."

Weiss gasped, horror and disgust flashing in her eyes. There were no words that could even begin to articulate the feelings that she was having. "I-Is... Are they... Is this team real?"

"They are very real," Bolt said. "You know them as Team Surge."

"It was you?!" Weiss exclaimed in shock. "You were that Electrike!"

"Yes," Bolt nodded, his eyes growing distant again. "That day still haunts me, Stride too. It almost broke the team permanently."

"But you came back together," Weiss stated.

"Yes, but it was months later and even then it was still difficult," Bolt stated. "Do you understand why I told you this story?"

"Um...to show me that planning isn't everything?"

"Partially." Bolt walked a few feet away, staring at the mission board from across the hall. "No team is perfect, no matter how strong or smart they may be." He turned and looked Weiss dead in the eye. No mirth glittered in his red orbs, just desperate seriousness that desired Weiss to understand what he was saying. "No matter how good you think you are, there will always be someone better. Even if you're prepared for them, things probably won't go your way and it is all you can do is adapt."

"But...even so, that doesn't excuse Team Dawn Breaker's lack of coordination," Weiss spluttered. "Their tactics were not textbook!"

"As Zero said, everyone has their own way of fighting," Bolt said. "And trust me when I say this, the 'textbook way' is a terrible way to go about entering a dungeon. Thirty percent of dungeon delving is preparation and the other seventy is improvisation. Remember that."

"Still," Weiss argued stubbornly, "that doesn't excuse that fact that Zero, as the leader, should at the very least know of type advantages!"

"You wanna know something that not a lot of people here know?" Bolt questioned, seemingly out of nowhere. "When Zero and Furno came to the division, Zero had no idea who he was."

"Amnesia?" Weiss asked, surprised.

"Mmm," Bolt hummed, nodding his head. "He knows nothing about where he comes from, who his parents are, hell, his name was given to him by Furno when he found him. When Stride started training him, it was literally from scratch. The fact that he has learned as many types and their advantages and disadvantages in this short amount of time is impressive."

"He really knows nothing," Weiss muttered to herself.

"Well, I wouldn't go that far," Bolt chuckled nervously. "He knows plenty, but his knowledge is nowhere near as extensive as your own."

A wave of guilt washed over Weiss. Her actions and attitude towards the team and its leader were not only unjust, but she judged them without knowing anything about them. "Now I feel bad," she said, lowering her head in shame.

"I didn't tell you this for you to feel bad," Bolt interrupted her self pity. "While you did overstep a little, you needed to know that your preconception of the 'perfect team' does not exist. Everyone can and will make mistakes, but recovering from those mistakes will make you stronger."

"I guess I should apologize," she muttered hesitantly.

"That would be a good start," Bolt said, giving the Absol a small smile.

"Right...I'll go do that," Weiss said, trotting off. She then said under her breath, "I just hope that they're willing to listen to me."

-Resistance-

Weiss took another deep breath as she tried to prepare herself. Finally steeling herself, she raised a paw and knocked loudly on Team Dawn Breaker's door.

"It's open," Zero's voice called.

Taking another deep breath, Weiss opened the door and walked into the room.

"Weiss?" Zero questioned. The Riolu was sitting in one of the armchairs, a book opened on the table in front of him. Confusion and surprise flashed in his red eyes, making it clear he had not expected to see Weiss again.

"Yeah, it's me," Weiss muttered, unable to meet Zero's eyes. "Can...can we talk?"

"Uh...yeah, sure," Zero agreed, still looking uncertain.

Weiss nodded, walking over and taking purchase on one of the couches. "Where are the others?"

"Well, I have no idea about Bella, she disappeared shortly after we got back, everyone else went down to the mess hall. They said they'd bring me something," Zero answered.

"You didn't want to go with them?" Weiss asked curiously.

"Nah, I wanted to...look at some stuff," he said, giving a vague gesture to the book in front of him.

Glancing over, Weiss looked over at the book. "Type advantages?" Weiss asked in surprise.

"Yeah," Zero said, scratching his head sheepishly. "I...don't want to get caught unprepared like at Fairwind Meadow."

Weiss winced at that. "Look, Zero," she began. "I...I wanted to apologize."

Zero looked confused. "About what?"

"My behavior," she said, steeling her nerve and rushing through. "Ishouldn'thavejudgedyousoharshly andinsultedyourcompetenceoryourtacticsorthewayyouleadyourteamor-"

"Wait," Zero interrupted, holding out a paw. "I barely understood half of that."

Weiss sighed and inhaled deeply. "I... In the dungeon...I should not have acted like that. It was uncalled for, not to mention incredibly rude. I should not have judged you for you lead your team or your own actions."

Eyes wide, Zero flushed at Weiss' apology. "N-No, it's fine," he stuttered, waving his hands to stop her apology.

"No, it's not fine!" Weiss snapped, slightly annoyed at the Riolu for trying to pass it off as if it were nothing. "I stepped out of line and I need to be held accountable. I requested to join your team and I did nothing but ridicule you and your team."

Zero remained silent. Part of him wanted to say that it was okay and that Weiss had no reason to apologize, but another part of him was still upset about her attitude. With these conflicting thoughts, Zero did not notice Weiss' nervousness.

Unable to take the silence, Weiss spoke again. "I know...I know that I have no place to ask this, but, if you allow me, I...I would like -again, only if you're willing- a second chance to prove myself to the team," she said.

Zero regarded the Absol silently. "I'm not going to lie," Zero began, "I, an probably most of the team, were...put off by your attitude. Quill was probably the most vocal about it..." Zero noticed Weiss recoil slightly at that, but chose not to comment on it. "While I know you meant well, the way you spoke gave the opposite impression."

"I know and I'm sorry for that," Weiss said quickly if not a little desperately.

"I understand that," Zero said, closing his eyes in thought. Weiss waited with bated breath for Zero's final decision. "While I hated how you said it, you were right about one thing; I should be aware of types. It is dangerous for me to continue as ignorant as I am. You clearly now about these advantages better than anyone else on the team and you have proven yourself to be good at planning and combat. As such, I am willing to give you _one_ more chance."

"Oh, thank you!" Weiss exclaimed, relief flooding her voice. "I promise I won't disappoint!"

"I hope not, because, unlike before, you're going in with negative reputation with the rest of the team," Zero warned, cutting the shiny Pokémon's gratitude. "If you want a part on this team, you'll need to be much more welcoming and kind towards everyone else."

"I-I will," Weiss gulped.

"Good," Zero said seriously before returning to the book in front of him.

Weiss shifted nervously. Zero had not dismissed her, but it was clear that the conversation was over. Glancing at the book Zero was reading, Weiss decided to be brave one more time that day. "I-If you want, I can help you with your studying."

Zero looked up from his book and stared at Weiss. After several tense seconds, a small smile broke out over the young Riolu's face. "That would be awesome," he said gratefully, earning a nervous smile from the Absol.

 **Author's Note**

Okay, sorry for the late chapter. I've been really busy lately, not to mention sick. Hopefully I'll be able to slip into me normal update schedule. Thank you for all of your continued support and feel free to leave a review.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Tensions Rising

"Okay guys! From the top!" Zero called.

"On it, boss!" Quill shouted. He closed his eyes and brought his hands together as if forming an energy ball. Instead of the customary green energy that seeped from his hands and formed a swirling orb, a golden orb of energy began to form. The ground under him cracked under him and a multitude of small stones entered the orb, causing it to swell to the size of Quill's fist. Opening his eyes, Quill took the orb in one hand and hurled it at a boulder.

The golden orb raced through the air before impacting against the boulder with an eruption of earth. When the smoke and dust was dispersed, the top portion of the boulder was completely destroyed. Zero surveyed the damage and offered the Quilladin an approving nod. "Good job," Zero said. "Your formation of the smack down was a little slow compared to that of your energy ball, but that's to be expected with a move that doesn't match your type. We'll just have to work on it a little more."

Quill gave a grunt of ascent, pleased over his work. Turning his attention to Dusty, Zero gave him the go ahead. Without anymore prompting, Dusty rushed forward. He curled into a ball as if he were about to use rollout, but unlike the rock move, a steel blue ring of light appeared around Dusty's curled form. Bouncing from the ground, Dusty slammed into the same boulder, demolishing it upon contact.

"Very nice gyro ball," Zero said as the ground type uncurled himself. "You've made great progress with it. You can use it almost as naturally as your rollout attack." He glanced at the shiny Absol next. "Weiss-"

"I know," she interrupted, her voice devoid of her normally haughty attitude. Without another word, her horn took on a white light with a purple outline. Glaring at her target, another nearby boulder, she swung her head, releasing a blade of white and purple energy.

The blade whistled through the air at alarming speeds until it reached its target. The blade seemed phase through the large stone, doing no visible damage. Just as the blade fizzled out, a diagonal line appeared on the boulder followed by the upper portion sliding off, cut cleanly as if it were a hot knife through butter.

"Good," Zero commented, eyeing the two boulder halves. "And the other?"

Weiss scoffed as if offended at Zero questioning her abilities (which she probably was). Her body tensed as she sank lower to the ground. In the blink of an eye Weiss' body seemed to split into dozens of mirroring images. The images spread out in a circle, each one seeming to shift and fade out like a mirage.

"Twenty of them," Zero noted, glancing at the clones. "That's better than last time."

"Of course," Weiss replied, her haughtiness returning full forced. "I've been practicing that move sense I came to the resistance."

"Careful, Weiss. Your arrogance is showing," Quill commented dryly, the barest amount of bitterness was noticeable in his voice.

"Quiet, you!" Weiss snapped, canceling her technique.

Zero sighed as the two began to bicker. Despite Weiss' apology to the team, Quill still held some resentment towards the Absol. Her attitude and criticisms coupled with her treatment of him during training left quite the sour taste in the Quilladin's mouth. While the others still had their reservations regarding the Absol, Quill was by far the most opposed to it.

Knowing that they would go at it for hours if left unchecked, Zero was quick to step in between them. "Okay, okay. That's enough," he said, giving both of them stern looks. "We're here to train, not bicker."

The duo withered from Zero's gaze and stood down, though they did glare at the other when they thought the Riolu was not looking. Zero sighed in annoyance, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Moving on. Furno?"

The Chimchar grinned eagerly at his friend, anxious for his chance to show of. He brought his arms close to his body, forming a small 'x' in front of him. His whole body shook as he flexed every muscle he could. At first, nothing happened. He just stood there, shaking, a light sweat breaking out over his brow. Then, a red aura took form around Furno's form, flickering like his tail fire. His muscles bulged with new strength, his entire form increasing in size.

Furno's gaze fell to the severed boulder, a glare making its way on his face. He dashed forward and gripped the fallen half and, in an incredible show of strength, lifted the rock which was about his size. With a grunt, he hurled the stone across the room where it landed with a crash. He turned to the remaining piece and brought up his hand, a white energy glowing from it. In a chopping motion, he brought down his hand, shattering the boulder into dust.

Quill whistled appreciatively at the destruction. "Dang, Furno," he commented. "Remind me not to make you mad!"

Furno laughed bashfully, letting go of his flex, the red energy dissipating as he did so. "Thanks," he responded. "It's still taking me a while to build up the energy for bulk up though..."

"You just learned the move," Zero pointed. "Don't be so hard on yourself."

Furno smiled gratefully at his friend, not noticing Quill making kissy faces behind him and Zero. Zero, however, noticed it and was quick to blast the Quilladin with a vacuum wave. "Stop being an idiot."

"So mean," Quill whined from his place on the ground.

Zero rolled his eyes, making an effort to ignore the grass-fighting type. "Alright, next up is..." he glanced around for their missing sixth member and sighed. "Where's Bella."

The moment her name left his mouth, the ghost type appeared behind him and pulled the Riolu into a tight embrace. Having grown accustomed to the Banette's antics, Zero only had a minor heart attack at Bella's sudden appearance. Groaning, Zero shifted around so that he could look up at the Banette. "Bella..."

The Banette just trilled happily, tightening her grip ever so slightly. Quill, back to his feet, snickered at the scene. He started making kissy faces at the duo, much to Zero's growing chagrin.

"Dusty," he growled.

Nodding, the Sandshrew leapt into the air and slammed into Quill's head with a rollout. Dazed, Quill tottered precariously before collapsing onto his back. "Did someone catch the name of that carriage?" he slurred.

"Idiot," Weiss stated blandly.

Zero shook his head before forcing his way out of Bella's grip. "Enough hugging, we're training," he admonished.

Bella seemed to pout, but relented. She floated away from the Riolu before looking around for a target. Appearing to find one, she suddenly slashed at the open air with her hands. As she did so it looked as if she had cut through the the very dimensions as a shadowy portal appeared in its wake. Grinning evilly, she flew through the portal just as it closed. A second later, a second portal appeared just behind a third boulder. Bella leapt from the portal and punched the boulder with enough force to crack it in half.

"Impressive," Zero said before ducking under Bella as she tried to hug him again. Giving the ghost type a pointed look, Zero shifted his attention to the previous boulder. "My turn."

He clenched his paw into a fist and brought it to his eye level. Slowly, starting at the bone protrusion on his paw, a poisonous purple energy began to seep over his fist. Once his fist was completely covered, he raced across the floor, stopping just in front of the boulder. He reared his fist back and slammed it into stone with a swift jab.

Unlike the previous attacks, the stone did not shatter, though spiderweb cracks began to spread from the point of impact. Purple arcs of what appeared to be electricity washed over the boulder before fading away

Zero glanced at the stone for a second before looking at it fist, the purple energy fading. "Well, I guess it worked. Can't really tell how effective that is without an actual enemy."

"Well..." Weiss began, "you can always hit Quill."

"Hu-Wha?" Quill replied intelligently.

Zero snorted at that. "Despite how tempting that sounds, we don't have time for that," he said. "We still have to work on our combos."

The group -sans Dusty- groaned in unison. "Seriously, Zero?" Quill whined. "We've been here for _hours_."

"I hate to agree with the numskull, but we _have_ been here for a while," Weiss said.

"We'll head out after this," Zero said.

"That's what you said twenty minutes ago," Furno commented dryly.

"Well you guys want to get stronger, don't you?" Zero questioned, earning reluctant nods from the group. "Then we've got to practice."

"You're more of a task master than the instructors back in training," Weiss groaned.

"That what I said!" Quill exclaimed before realizing who he was talking to. He was quick to turn his head, pointedly not looking at the Absol who scoffed at his antics.

"Look at it this way," Zero said. "The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can leave."

The other five glanced at one another. "Fine."

"Great!" Zero said clapping his paws. "Let's start out with Spinning Pin."

With a dramatic sigh, Quill stepped forward along with Dusty. The two nodded at one another before Dusty ran forward. As he did so, Quill unleashed a storm of pin missiles directly at Dusty. Just when it looked like the bug type move was about to hit the mouse Pokémon, he curled into a ball and started to spin. A strong wind, generated from Dusty's rapid spin, rose up, trapping the pins and pulling them into the strong winds.

With Quill's attack trapped within his rapid spin, Dusty dashed forward with rollout, still keeping up the winds. He bounced in the air and smashed into what was left of the boulder. The winds and pin missiles smashed into the stone, tearing the rock to pieces before Dusty's curled up form even touched it.

"Excellent," Zero said. "You okay, Dusty?"

"Yes, Zero. The pins did not touch me," Dusty responded.

"Good," Zero said with a nod. "Next is Phantom Cut."

"Seriously, who came up with these names," Weiss grumbled as she stepped forward with Bella.

"Furno," Quill answered.

"What?" Furno questioned. "It's a good name!"

"Whatever," Weiss grumbled. "Let's just-" Before she could finish her thought, Bella lunged forward, slashing the air and forming a portal. "Wait! Hold on a second!" Weiss shouted as Bella flew into the portal.

Seeing that Bella wasn't waiting, and the portal was closing, Weiss sighed in annoyance before channeling purple energy into her horn. With a swish of her head, she released a psycho cut into the closing portal.

A second passed before another portal opened up on the opposite side of the room. Bella flew out of it, punching the ground before moving out of the way as the blade of psychic energy shot out after her. The blade cut into the ground, leaving a fairly deep gouge in the earth.

"Perfect," Zero complimented.

"Hardly," Weiss grumbled under her breath, sending a glare at the smirking Banette.

"Okay, that leaves-" Zero began, only to be interrupted by Furno.

"Flame Wave!"

Zero deadpanned at the chimp Pokémon. "Is that what we're calling it now?"

"What's wrong with it?" Furno said defensively.

"Nothing. Nothing at all." Zero stretched his arms, pointedly ignoring Furno's glare. "Let's get started."

He raised his arm and immediately a a harsh blue wind erupted around him. Grudgingly complying, Furno's tail flame roared with new life. With a sharp inhale, Furno shot a flamethrower at the tower of wind. The winds sucked up the flames, twisting it around with the harsh flow of the winds. In the center of the now flaming tornado, Zero was sweating from both the combined force of the flames and keeping the winds under control.

"Crud!" Zero shouted as he control began to slip. "HIT THE DECK!"

Just barely hearing their leader's voice, the quintet instantly dive to the ground just as the tornado of fire shook, warped, and finally, exploded outward. A virtual storm of small blades of flames shot out in every direction, cutting into the walls, the floor, a few even cut through the curtain separating their current training room from the rest of the facility. Several shouts of surprise, followed by several loud crashing sounds.

Standing in the center of of a scorched ring, thankfully spared from the flames, Zero winced at the sounds. "Sorry!" he called.

"Welp, that's another failure," Quill said, getting back to his feet. "We should call that Flame Burst instead of Flame Wave!"

"Flame burst is already a move, dummy," Weiss snarked.

Quill glared at the Absol, but before he could say anything, Monty -in the form of a Rampardos- poked his head in. "Okay, I'm all for training, but this is the third time this week that this has happened," he said, crossing his arms.

"Sorry," Zero said sheepishly, the rest of his team shifting nervously. "We've been trying to work out this combination to give us an edge against our opponents, but it keeps...blowing up."

"Literally," Quill said behind a poorly faked cough.

"I can see that," Monty deadpanned. "Normally, I'd be more than willing to help, but I've got an expedition to Overgrow Jungle to prepare for."

"Overgrow Forest?" Weiss questioned. "Why would you go to a place like that?"

"Isn't that the forest on the other side of Scarred Field, on the opposite side of Shifting Forest?" Quill questioned.

"Right on both accounts," Monty said, shifting into a Grovyle. "To answer you question, little missy," Weiss blushed a little at that, "I've heard rumors of ruins hidden somewhere in the forest."

"Ruins?" Weiss implored, her interest peaked.

"That's right," Monty said. "It's said to have been an ancient temple designed for the worship of the legendary Pokémon Celebi."

"I've heard of Celebi," Weiss said. "She's supposedly the guardian of time as opposed to Dialga, the ruler of time."

"The guardian...of time?" Zero said, feeling a small tickle in his brain. _That sounds...familiar?_

"But aren't the legends just that; legends?" Weiss questioned.

"Oh, no,no,no!" Monty said aghast. "The legends were, or rather are, very real. In fact, if memory serves me correctly- "Monty shifted into the form of a Regirock, "-your team has encountered one."

"WHAT?!" Weiss screamed, rounding on the others. "When did this happen?!"

"Uh... About a couple months ago?" Zero replied.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Weiss all but whined.

"It never came up," Furno said with a nonchalant shrug before turning back to the false Regirock, shuddering at the memory of their fight with the rock type legendary. "Are you hoping to find Celebi then?"

"No, that would be hoping for a miracle," Monty chuckled, reverting to his Grovyle form. "The actual legends haven't been seen in centuries. No, I'm hoping to find a mosaic or ancient drawing of Celebi. That way I'll be able to get an idea of what she looks like and be able to shift into her form."

"Another form to your collection," Quill commented, clapping Monty on his shoulder.

"Indeed, but I digress." He turned to give the team a stern glare. "I cannot have you all wrecking up my training center. Especially without guidance."

"So what should we do?" Zero asked.

"I would suggest asking Stride," Monty replied, shifting into a Greninja. "He _has_ been in charge of your training and has plenty of experience in combat, with and without allies. Maybe he can shed some light on your...exploding problem."

"That's not a bad idea," Weiss said, adding her two cents. "It couldn't hurt."

"Well I don't really want to bother him," Zero said, suddenly shuffling his feet in a awkward manner. "He's been...distant as of late and I think the stress of everything going on is getting to him."

"I'm not surprised," Monty said grimly. "Between running his team and organizing the watch of Razed Ridge, I'm afraid that Stride has been under a lot of stress. That being said, I'm sure he would be more than willing to make time for you all."

Zero still looked conflicted, but he knew that they needed help. "Fine, we'll talk to him."

"Good," Monty said, clapping his webbed hands together. "Now get out of my training center!"

-Resistance-

"I can't believe he threw us out!" Zero exclaimed indigently.

"What did you expect?" Weiss questioned. "We _did_ melt a bunch of his equipment. Just be glad that he didn't charge us."

"That would have been awful," Quill moaned. "We barely have any money as it is!"

"All those escape orbs add up," Weiss commented.

"Ugh, I wish there was some way to just _teleport_ out of a dungeon when we find the client instead of either going the rest of the way through the dungeon or using an escape orb!" Quill complained.

"That's would be convenient, but impractical," Weiss countered. "To do something like that would require some kind of gem made up of pure psychic energy and making at least _one_ of those for every team would be impossible given how there are."

"Guys!" Zero interrupted. "You can argue about the logistics of teleportation later. We're here."

True to his words, the team had stopped just in front of Team Surge's door. Zero stepped forward to knock, but stopped when he heard raised voices coming from inside.

"It sound's like there's a lot of Pokémon in there."

"Probably his team," Quill said, moving forward to knock himself, but was stopped when Zero grabbed his arm.

"Wait!" he hissed. "He's probably having a meeting or something. I don't want to interrupt."

"Well we came all this way," Quill said, beginning to push forward to knock.

"Quill!" Zero exclaimed, pulling harder on his teammates arm.

Furno, Dusty, Bella, and Weiss watched in amusement/annoyance as an impromptu wrestling match started between the two fighting types. "Are things always like this?" Weiss questioned.

"No," Dusty said, watching the fight impassively. "Usually its Furno and Quill fighting."

"Is not!" Furno shouted indigently, his blush betraying his tone.

Both Dusty and Bella stared blankly at the Chimchar, clearly not believing the fire type for a second. This caused Furno to blush even harder as he spluttered in denial. Weiss internally groaned at her teams antics. "Why did I want to join this team again?"

Meanwhile, Zero was still struggling to keep the Quilladin from knocking on the door. "Quill, stop!" Zero said, pulling on the grass-fighting type's arm. "We shouldn't intrude on their conversation."

"I'm sure it's fine," Quill said, dismissing Zero's concerns.

"And if it's not?!"

"Then-"

"Ahem." They both froze at the sound of someone's throat clearing. Slowly turning their gaze to the door, which was now open. Leaning against the door frame, an amused smirk on his face. "I thought I heard voices," he said. "Should have known it'd be you lot."

"O-Orion!" Zero squeaked, letting go of Quill's arm and causing him to fall flat on his face. "Ack! Sorry, Quill!"

"Whatever,"Quill said, rubbing his nose.

"What are you doing here, Orion?" Furno asked curiously.

Orion's smirk fell from his face, his mouth becoming a thin line. "Stride called me. He...he has a plan and he wanted my opinion for it."

"His plan?" Zero questioned.

Orion regarded the Riolu carefully. "It'd be best if you hear it from him."

Zero was quick to deny Orion's request. "We don't want to interrupt."

"It's fine," Orion assured. "He actually wanted to talk to you after this, but no time like present."

Not giving the younger Pokémon a chance to argue, Orion grabbed him by the shoulders and steered him inside, leaving the rest of his team to follow behind. The moment they entered they were greeted with the entirety of Team Surge, each of them wearing matching grave expressions. Some of them (ie: Seth) was glaring openly at the Greninja. The moment he noticed the younger team enter, all his aggression turned on them.

"What are the hatchlings doing here?!" he snarled, looking over the team with burning red eyes. Zero noted that the dark type's eyes widened fractionally when he saw Weiss, but his surprise quickly faded. Zero was wondering if he imagined it when he noticed Seth was waiting for an explanation.

"Well we came to ask Stride a question, but we heard voices, so we were going to leave and come back later, but Quill-"

"Zero, you're rambling," Orion interrupted, causing Zero to flush.

Stride chuckled lightly, though Zero could hear that it was slightly strained. "Ever the awkward one, aye Zero?"

"Well, as you can see, we are currently in the middle of a very important meeting, so if you could scamper along like good children," Seth said his cold tone betraying his words.

"Enough, Seth," Stride said, sounding both tired and annoyed. "I had plans on telling them anyway."

"What?! You're planning on telling _them_?!" Seth snapped, whirling around. "This is none of their business. They are just children!"

Had Seth not always been insulting towards the young team, Zero would have sworn that he sounded concerned, worried even, about their team.

"They had no place becoming a _team_ let alone hearing team sensitive information!"

 _And there it is,_ Zero thought, rolling his eyes.

"Actually, darling, as Stride is still in the process of training them, they are technically part of the team," Jasmine purred, stretching out in a deceptively lazy way.

"A technicality doesn't give them the right to listen in!" Seth snapped.

"Seth, they kind of are involved," Wake pointed out, trying to ease the tensions of the room. Unfortunately, it did not work.

" _Everyone_ is involved!" the Absol snarled. "The whole _world_ is involved with this. The emperor is a problem to everyone. Does that mean you want to tell _everyone_ about this."

"Well rumors on the grapevine will eventually reach the everyone," Bolt pointed out, gaining a harsh glare from Seth.

"Not. Helping."

"Whoa," Quill muttered, leaning down to Furno. "Do all Absol's glare like that."

Furno quickly shushed the Quilladin just as Stride got to his feet. "Seth, whether you like it or not, I plan on telling them. It was my belief that brought them to the resistance, as such, I can't help but feel that they are to serve a purpose in the upcoming war."

"War?" Furno asked, gulping audibly.

Stride looked to his young charge, sympathy glistening in his sunken eyes. He sighed and sat down again. "Yes, war," he said, laying his head in his hands. "I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Things are getting bad. The emperor is getting more brazen in his attempts at gaining control. His attempt at capturing Furno is proof if that."

"The emperor is getting bolder," Mystic stated, her eyes closed in thought. "In just this past week his soldiers have attacked four towns, capturing two of them."

"And the remaining two are in shambles," Liz added, crossing her arms. "We evacuated the inhabitants, but there were still casualties. Not to mention the land the emperor gained from those two towns just makes it harder for us."

"Which is why we should be focusing on taking back what he's taken rather than chasing fairy tales!" Seth snarled angrily. "Honestly, you're supposed to be a team leader. Instead of having your head up in the clouds with myths, you should be here in the present!"

"My Arceus," Quill murmured, low enough so that only Furno could here him. He looked from Seth to Weiss, gobsmacked. "It's like looking into a mirror!"

"Shh!" Furno hissed.

"It's not a fairy tale," Stride growled. "It could very well be the key to ending this Arceus forsaken war!"

"They key to ending the war?!" Seth exclaimed incredulously. "The key to ending this war is the blood, sweat, and tears of Pokémon who refuse to be ruled by a tyrant! The only way we can win is if we all fight against the emperor, not stand around twiddling our thumbs as we wait for some _savior_ to save us all!"

"And what if you're wrong?!" Stride snapped. "What if we can't beat him?! What if, no mater what we do, no matter how much we give and give to the cause, it's not enough?" His voice slowly lost intensity its intensity with each word until he was slumped in his chair.

Now more than ever, the Greninja just seemed tired. The dark circles around his eyes practically glowed against his palish blue skin and his entire body seemed to sag as if weighed down. This was clearly not something that his team was used to seeing, judging by their concerned expressions. Even Seth looked concerned, though he hid it behind a cold mask.

"Stride?" Liz asked tentatively.

Stride sighed, looking at his team. "I'm sorry. I just...I just can't help but feel that it's all for naught," he murmured. "That, in the end, we can't win..."

"How can you say that, Stride?" Samuel asked. When he got no answer, the Abomasnow got up and stomped towards the Greninja. "I asked how you could say that?!"

Stride still didn't respond, his gaze firmly on the ground. Samuel growled at that and grabbed Stride by his front, mindful of his tongue, and pulled him to his feet with an almost feral growl.

"Whoa, Sammy!" Liz cried, getting to her feet. "Calm down!"

"No, I want to know what the hell is going through his head!" Samuel snapped, glaring at the Greninja. "I want to know what the hell makes you say that everything we've done, everything the _resistance_ has done, as been for nothing! We have helped Pokémon, rescued them from mystery dungeons, saved them from the emperor and his soldiers-"

"And what do we have to show for it?!" Stride snapped, slapping the Abomasnow's hands off him. "Everything we've done has been undermined by the emperor! We've been pushed further and further back by the emperor's soldiers! At this rate, all we can hope to do is delay the inevitable! What we need is to win, not hold on and the only way to do that is to strike down the emperor before things get too bad!"

"And you want us to just go after him?" Seth scoffed. "We'd need to get through all of his soldiers first!"

"Which is why I need to do this!" Stride countered. "We _need_ any advantage that we can get. What do we have to lose?"

"You!" Seth shouted. "If this ends up as bad as I think it will, we could lose you."

"We're losing people with every passing day!" Stride shot back.

"But there not you!" Seth growled as if his his words were actually hurting. "Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, Pokémon look up to you. They see you as one of the resistance's greatest. If you were to die, they would all lose hope and that's all we have at the moment!"

"We won't even have that if we don't get some kind of edge," Stride said.

The two glared at one another, their silence creating tension to suffocate the room. After a full five minutes, Quill, being the blunt Pokémon he is, cleared his throat, causing everyone's attention to snap to him. "Not to sound intruding, but what are you guys talking about."

"Stride..." Bolt began, glancing at his friend, "heard back from the Groudon division. They made some headway in deciphering a tome regarding..."

"The silver soul?" Zero questioned.

"Oh great," Seth groaned, rolling his eyes. "What else have you told them, Stride."

"You act like it's some secret," Stride said without humor.

"Anyway," Bolt growled, giving the duo pointed looks, "they came across the name of a set of ruins that they believe to hold some connection with the silver soul."

"What ruins?" Weiss asked.

"The Ruins of Reminiscence."

"I've heard of those ruins," Weiss said.

"Of course you have," Quill muttered.

"They used to be from a temple used by shamans a long time ago," Weiss said, ignoring Quill's comment. "They supposedly used it to look into the past."

"Look into the past?" Zero questioned.

"Like some reverse future sight attack," Quill commented.

"So you want to go to the ruins to try and find the silver soul by looking into the past?" Furno asked.

"I honestly don't know, Furno," Stride said with a barely concealed sigh. "The truth of the matter is that many archaeologists have explored the ruins for years, but there has been no sign of any ritual site, tomes, or anything that gives some clue about the rituals that the denizens used to perform."

"Yet _you_ think that you can find something that trained professionals haven't been able to find in _years_ ," Seth commented disbelievingly.

"Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes is needed to see something that other's can't," Stride responded, not looking at the Absol.

"You don't honestly believe that, do you?!" Seth yelled, leaping to his feet.

"Yes, I do," Stride said, his tone dead serious, leaving nothing for argument. Even so, Seth did not back down.

"This goes far beyond you delusions of an ultimate weapon, Stride," he growled. "I was fine standing by as you would talk and dream about the silver soul, how it would be the thing that saved us all, but this is going too far. Now you are purposely putting yourself in harms way for the sake of chasing a _dream_! If you continue to act in such a manner I will-"

In a blur of movement, Stride had grabbed Seth by the throat and slammed the dark type against the wall. "You'll what?" Stride asked, his voice a deadly calm. "What will you do?"

"STRIDE!" Liz shouted, getting to her feet as well. "What are you doing?!"

"This isn't the way, Stride!" Bolt said, his expression slightly panicked.

"Tell me something, Seth," Stride growled, completely ignoring his team. "Who's the leader of this team? Who calls the shots? Who are _you_ supposed to listen to without question."

Seth choked slightly as Stride increased the pressure. Even so, Seth glared at the Greninja. "I sometimes wonder."

Stride increased the pressure again, his glare intensifying. "That's very close to insubordination."

"I'd rather be insubordinate than be led to my death by some incompetent leader!" Seth snarled, his face darkening as he struggled to breathe. "One would think that, after Christina, you'd know how to be an actual leader."

The Greninja's eyes widened and his pupils shrank in pure rage. He pulled his free hand to the side, his fingers curled as if holding something, and a small blade of dark purple energy formed in his hand. The blood roaring in his ears drowned out the shouts of his team as he raised his blade to slash at the Absol. As his blade was about to stab the Absol, a something grasped his wrist halting his movements.

Stride's head snapped to the one grabbing his arm, a snarl on the tip of his tongue, but stopped as he met the ruby red gaze of Orion. "Enough, Stride," he said, his voice calm and his expression blank. "This isn't the message you want to send."

Stride was about to retort, but stopped when he felt more than just the gaze of his team on his back. Slowly turning his head, he was met by the terrified stares of Team Dawn Breaker. Each one of them looked horrified and fearful from Stride's action, Zero in particular was physically shaking, Stride rage affecting him more than the others.

Realization dawned on Stride as he slowly realized what he had just done and what he was about to do. He looked around and saw matching looks of horror and shock on the expressions of his team. Even Seth was trying and failing to hide his own fear with a glare that kept falling from his face. Stride's grip slackened, allowing Seth to crumple to the ground and stepped back, his head bowed.

For a while, no one spoke. Everyone just stared wide-eyed at Stride's unmoving form. Finally, Stride spoke up, breaking the silence with a dead tone. "I'm going to ask the tribunal for permission for an expedition to The Ruins of Reminiscence," he said.

Without another words, the Greninja strode out of the room and into the hall.

The silence that was left when the water-dark type had left still filled the air. Emotions were high, extremely so. So high that Zero felt like his head would burst from all the shock, confusion, worry, and fear that was filling the air. Zero felt as if he were suffocating, the pounding in his head not helping the matter. He had to get out of the room, but he was paralyzed from what he had just witnessed.

Thankfully, Orion sensed the Riolu's discomfort and was quick to get him and his team out of the room. "Come on. I can help you guys out with your training," he said brightly, forcing a smile onto his face. A smile that none of Team Dawn Breaker bought. Even so, they allowed themselves to be ushered out of the room, leaving Team Surge to their silence.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

The Broker

Orion led the silent Team Dawn Breaker down the steps to the training center. Worry was clear in the Lucario's eyes as he looked at the team, more specifically, Zero. He was not sure if the Riolu was conscious of it, but he was emanating a large cloud of confusion and worry. It worried the Lucario as Zero was not one to wear his emotions on his sleeve, preferring to what he was feeling to himself the majority of the time. For him to be projecting his emotions in such a way was a testament to how much Stride's break down had affected him.

Oblivious to the Lucario's own thoughts, Zero was in his own world. Seeing Stride act in such a manner had shaken the former human. To him, Stride had always been something of an anchor, almost as much as Furno was. It was Stride that would give him advice, both in combat and how to effectively lead his team. It was the Greninja who had convinced him to tell his secret to his team (sans Weiss and Bella). Stride was everything that Zero wanted to be in a leader; calm, intelligent, strategic, powerful. Seeing him break down in such a way scared Zero. It scared him to see how the stresses of war could affect someone. It made him question his choice to be a leader. To take part in this war.

Next to him, Furno and Quill sent their leader concerned looks. They did not have emotion sensing like the Riolu line, but even they could feel the emotions their leader was giving off. They were startled by Stride's actions as well, but it seemed that Zero had been affected more than the rest of the team.

Dusty remained his usual apathetic self, giving the occasional sideways glance at the team. Weiss was looking straight ahead, not making eye contact with anyone. He expression appeared thoughtful yet conflicted as well, most likely over what she had just witnessed. Bella, strangely enough, just floated along silently, not even trying to hug the Riolu as she normally did. Instead, she just stared at the Riolu, her pink eyes holding no emotion.

The silent group made there way to the training center. Monty saw them and was about to reprimand the young team when he noted their somber expressions. Orion shook his head at the Ditto when he made to question the team. Realizing that it was most likely a sensitive topic, Monty nodded in understanding and waved them to an unused training room. Once inside, the group stood around silence.

"Sooo..." Orion said, breaking the silence. "What did you need help with?"

"Oh, um, one of our combos isn't working right," Furno said awkwardly.

"Well, what's wrong?"

"Uh, every time we try it, it explodes."

"Hmm... Let me see this combination," Orion requested.

"O-Okay." Furno turned to Zero. "Come on, Zero."

The Riolu did not respond. He just looked past the group with a thousand mile stare.

Furno glanced at the rest of the team, silently requesting for assistance. Quill hesitantly approached the Riolu and shook his shoulder. "Uh, Zero?"

Still no response.

Orion sighed and walked over to the Riolu. He forcibly, yet gently, turned Zero around to face him. "Zero, look at me," he requested kindly. Slowly, the emanation Pokémon's gaze focused in on the Lucario, earning a small smile from the taller of the two. "Talk to me. What's wrong."

"...nothing."

"Zero," Orion said, sounding as if he were talking to a small child, "you're giving off so much raw emotion that the whole resistance can feel it!"

Zero had the decency to blush at that. A second later, the heavy air of confusion receded, leaving a sheepish looking Riolu. "Sorry..."

"It's no trouble," Orion chuckled. "Now, what's troubling you?"

"...it's just...seeing Stride like that..." Zero rambled, unsure how to articulate his thoughts. Thankfully, it appeared that Orion understood his ramblings.

"Seeing Stride like that...it caught you off guard." It was not a question.

Zero nodded. "It's just...he's always been so calm and collected. He never lost his cool and..." he trailed off. "His anger...I've never..."

"You're still new to your emotion sensing. Strong emotions like anger can have an almost crippling affect on you," Orion explained. "I take it Stride's anger caught you off guard?"

"It was more than that!" Zero refuted. "I've...I've never experienced such strong emotions before. It wasn't just anger, it was sadness, grief, worry, pain...all of that at once! It was like I was suffocating."

Zero shook slightly, remembering the virtual ocean of emotions that the Greninja was exuding. He took a second to calm himself before continuing. "It was like nothing I've ever felt. So many emotions at once from a single Pokémon. It was like he was screaming at me."

"Stride's going through a lot," Stride soothed. "It's only natural that he gets stressed out. He's not a machine after all, no matter how much he like to act like one."

"I know," Zero muttered, almost in a petulant manner. "Just...seeing him like that, so stressed out that he _attacked_ one of his teammates, it scares me. It scares me to think that that might happen to me."

"Zero, Stride has a lot of things on his plate," Orion explained patiently. "Your team is still young, both in members and in terms of activity. Not to mention that Team Surge is seen as the paragon to all teams that join or are formed. As such, there's a lot of pressure for them to succeed. It's that pressure to be the best and to set an example that set Stride off. In all honesty, I'm surprised he hasn't snapped sooner."

"But why is it like that?" Furno questioned. "I understand that there's a lot of pressure, but shouldn't his team be able to take some of the stress off him? I mean, that the point of having teammates; so the leader doesn't have to handle everything themselves."

"While that is true, Stride has always been a loner of sorts," Orion explained. "The others try and help him, but he tends to keep things to himself."

"That's a bit hypocritical," Zero commented, remembering how Stride wanted him to be open with his team.

"I can't speak for Stride's reasons behind Stride's actions," Orion shrugged. "What I do know is that Stride tends to keep most of his thoughts to himself because, well, you saw the reaction of his team when he mentioned going out to the ruins."

"He can't really believe he will find something, can he?" Weiss questioned. "I mean, the silver soul is just a myth."

"Myth or not, Stride believes it," Furno, surprisingly, answered. "It was one of the reasons that he brought me and Zero to the division and had us join."

"It is the cornerstone of his faith," Orion added. "He firmly believes that the silver soul will be our salvation from the emperor."

"But that's ridiculous!" Weiss exclaimed. "Basing all your hope on a legend, that is just foolish."

"Hey, whatever gets you up and fighting," Orion said with a nonchalant shrug. "It is his belief of the silver soul that has gotten him through some very trying times. With the emperor on the move, that may be all that Stride has at this point."

Weiss frowned. "Doesn't he believe in the strength of the resistance?"

"He does, to an extent. As you heard, we are being pushed back. The resistance needs more support and willing fighters in order to gain more ground and those are in short supply. At this rate, it;s only a matter of time before the resistance is snuffed out."

"Well that's reassuring," Quill commented dryly.

"It's the truth," Orion said gravely.

"Even so..." Weiss began only to be silenced by Orion.

"Look, I'm not telling you Stride's beliefs are misplaced. There are many secrets that have not been discovered or explained in this world. There very well may be a silver soul out there, the point is Stride is under a lot of pressure and this is the path that he has chosen. All we can do is hope for the best and support him when we can."

"It didn't look like his team was supporting him," Zero pointed out solemnly.

"They do, even Seth, though he doesn't show it," Orion said. "Deep down, they want to believe in Stride and help them in any way they can, but with the current state of things, they are also expected to help out on the front lines. They can't afford to assist Stride, no matter how much they want to."

Zero nodded at Orion's explanation, albeit rather unenthusiastically. It still bothered him seeing how much Stride pain, but there was nothing that he could do about it. Instead he sighed. "I guess this means that we won't be going on missions for a while. With Team Surge worried about what to do, there's no one to supervise us when we go out."

"We could always go out by ourselves," Quill suggested.

"I'd rather not get Stride upset," Zero said, shuddering slightly.

"True." Quill said, giving his own shudder.

"Hmm..." Orion pondered. "You could always come with me tomorrow."

"Huh?" Furno questioned.

"Well, since I'm here, the tribunal saw fit to give me a S-rank mission to the city of Toure," Orion explained. "I'm supposed to meet with the broker."

"The broker?" Weiss gasped, eyes wide in surprise. "They're real?"

"That's right," Orion said, nodding his head.

"Who's the broker?" Furno asked.

"They're supposedly a Pokémon who has information on almost everything in Lyore!" the Absol gushed. "Lore, history, locations of items, everything!"

"Whoa, we have all that at our finger tips?" Furno asked incredulously.

"Not exactly," Orion said.

"What do you mean?" Zero asked, turning to his elder.

"The broker isn't on our side so to speak," he explained. "They are willing to work for anyone as long as they have the money to pay for their services."

"Even the emperor?" Quill asked.

"Even him. The broker does not discriminate. Though, to my knowledge, the broker has not dealt with the emperor. Most likely because they have a kill order on their head for all the information they've given the resistance."

"So we are dealing with a criminal," Dusty said bluntly.

"More or less," Orion relented. "So, what do you guys say? Are you in?"

"Are you sure this is okay? This _is_ an S-rank mission," Weiss pointed out uncertainly.

"True, but it is a tame one," Orion was quick to point out. "It's not like we will be fighting against soldiers."

The young team glanced at one another, appearing to be having a debate with their eyes. After a few seconds, Zero broke eye contact with his team and addressed the Lucario hesitantly. "I guess it's okay..."

"Then it's settled!" Orion said happily, clapping his paws. "Now, how about we work on your combination."

"Actually," Zero began tentatively, glancing back at his team, "could we just...not do that? I don't think I'm really not in the mood for any more training."

His team gave their leader incredulous looks, surprised that the fighting type was saying no to more training. Orion nodded and gave the younger a Pokémon an understanding smile. "That's fine. I'll pick you guys up tomorrow morning."

Zero nodded gratefully up at the Lucario and hurried out of the room, not even glancing back. His team followed him with their eyes, frowning to themselves.

"Is he going to be okay?" Furno asked worriedly.

"Just give him some time," Orion reassured. "He's got a lot to think about."

-Resistance-

True to his words, Orion came to their door the following morning -much earlier than they thought he would- and was quick to usher them out of the division. He said that Toure was a ways away and he would prefer to get there before dark. The broker would be there for a couple days, but Orion wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible. Something about not wanting to spend anymore time than he had to with the broker, or something like that.

They all trekked through the field that separated them from their destination, skirting around the known dungeons that stood between them. They walked in relative silence, not really having anything to discuss. Orion tried to give the group pointers on how to make their combinations work; focusing your energy, exerting more control over an attack, and like material. However, the team only listened with half and ear, their main attention focused on Zero.

The Riolu appeared t be normal, but their was a distant look in his eye. He was no longer exuding his emotions, but it was clear that he was still contemplating things. His team tried to engage him in conversation, but he would just give vague or brief responses making it clear that his mind was wandering. Orion discretely told them that Zero was fine, just contemplative, but that did not stop their worry. Even Weiss showed concern for their silent leader.

After a few hours tense silence, Bella just could not take it anymore.

"Ack! Bella!" Zero yelped loudly as the ghost type grabbed him and pulled him into a tight hug. "Put me down!"

The Banette adamantly shook her head and gripped the struggling Riolu tighter. Seeing the Riolu's plight, the tension vanished completely and everyone, sans Zero and Bella, burst out in uproarious laughter.

"I-I guess Bella didn't like seeing you sulking!" Quill laughed.

"Bella," Zero growled half-heartedly. After several minutes of struggling, Zero resigned himself to his fate and slumped in the ghost type's grip. "Okay, okay. I'll stop sulking. Can you put me down now?"

The marionette Pokémon once more shook her head. She made several loud grunts and scowled sternly down at the Riolu in her arms.

"I think what Bella's trying to tell you is that you shouldn't be hung up on the whole Stride thing," Furno said, getting his laughter under control.

"Yeah, you've got us so you don't need to stress," Quill added.

Zero smiled at the group, though it was clear that it was strained. "I know that, it's just...I've been having second thoughts about being a leader."

"WHAT?!" Zero visibly winced at the intensity of the shouts. Not even a second later, he yelped as the Banette's grip faded, causing Zero fall on his rear.

"What do you mean that you're having second thoughts?!" Furno demanded. He was did not sound angry, but hurt. "Don't you want to be part of the team?"

Zero felt his heart breaking at the betrayed look in his friend's eye. "No! It's not that!" he said quickly. "I'm just...after seeing Stride break down like that, I've been wondering if I have the temperament to be a leader."

"You heard Orion yesterday. Stride was like that because he's under tons more stress than most team leaders," Quill said sternly. "We're a smaller team. Ergo, less stress."

"Still..."

"Okay, enough of the pity party," Weiss said suddenly, glaring frostily at the Riolu. "You don't want to be the leader? Fine! You don't need to act like a freaking martyr! You're having second thoughts? You're worried that you'll mess up? Well, news flash, you're not the only one! Everyone makes mistakes and everyone worries that they'll mess up. You aren't special!"

"Weiss, maybe you should..." Furno squeaked as the Absol pinned the fire type with a frosty glare.

"You can't just live your life in constant fear that you'll mess up," Weiss said, turning back to the Riolu, her gaze softening a fraction of a degree. "You're a leader. You're job is to lead and direct us, not worry about making the wrong decision. You need to have trust in us, your team, that we will not only follow your orders and stand by you no matter what."

"But what if-"

"There are no 'buts'!" Weiss snarled, hackles bared. "We're supposed to be a team so that you can delegate responsibilities, not carry them all on your shoulder."

"But Stride..."

"Zero, and I can't believe I'm about to say this, don't be like Stride." Zero openly gaped at the Absol. She rolled her eyes and pressed on, her voice becoming more passionate with every passing word. "You and Stride are completely different Pokémon. Don't live your life trying to be him. Be you. Be the leader _you_ want to be, not someone else."

At that point, not just Zero was gaping, but the entirety of Team Dawn Breaker was gaping. Bella had even unzipped her mouth in order for her jaw to drop. While her words were crass, her words had a weight to them that was uncommon for the shiny Absol.

Weiss noticed their shell shocked expressions and growled lowly. "What?" she demanded. "What?!"

"I never thought you could be so...deep like that," Quill all but whispered.

Weiss blushed hotly, her red skin turning darker. "Sh-Shut up!" she snapped. "I can be deep! I'm just as kind and supportive as anyone else!"

She was about to continue her rant, but a soft chuckle cut her off. Zero was chuckled brightly, wiping his misting eyes. He smiled warmly at the typically cold and abrasive Absol, surprising her. "Thank you," he said with honest gratitude. "I needed to hear that."

"Even if it was a little coarse," Dusty commented, pointedly ignoring the Absol's glare.

"Yes, well...you are welcome," Weiss said, trying, and failing, to keep the smugness out of her voice. "I'm glad at least _someone_ appreciates my expertise!"

"Oh, so you're an expert on emotions now?" Quill asked sarcastically. "Hey, if things don't work out with the resistance, you can be a Pokémon psychologist!"

"Oh hardy-har-har," Weiss laughed mirthlessly.

Zero openly laughed at his two teammates' antics, feeling a great weight lift from his shoulders. While he was still nervous about his own leading and the future of his team, he did not let it take over his thoughts. Weiss was right, he need to have trust in his team.

-Resistance-

The sun was just beginning to set when the group of seven reached Toure. It was small, in comparison to Glaucuous Town, but still large all the same. It did not have paved roads though there were clear paths in the grass that stretched through the town. Like many of the continent's cities and towns, the buildings were all made of cobble with wooden beams acting as supports. The only uniqueness that the town held was a large clock tower in the center of the town and the large ten meter wooden fence that surrounded the town, a large set of reinforced doors being the only entrance into the town.

As it was late, very few Pokémon were actually out and about upon their arrival. The ones that were out payed the group no mind and went around closing their various businesses.

"Keep your eyes peeled," Orion advised, his demeanor deadly serious. "This town is neutral in the war, but that doesn't mean that soldiers won't show up."

"I thought you said this was a simple information gathering mission," Weiss whispered harshly. "You never said that we'd encounter soldiers!"

"Relax, Weiss," Orion soothed. "The chances of running into soldiers is slim to none. It's just a precaution."

"And no you've jinxed us," Quill grumbled.

"That's just a myth," Furno denied.

"Mark my words. Before this mission is out, we'll run into at least one soldier!" Quill said dramatically.

"Guys!" Zero said tightly. "Focus."

"Thank you. Now the broker said that they'd be waiting behind the inn from dawn 'til dusk," Orion explained. "If we hurry, we should be able to catch them."

Without any more to say, the team nodded and followed the Lucario through the streets. They took Orion's words to heart and kept a careful eye out for any sign of soldiers. The sun was, at that point, completely out of sight, only the barest of orange rays creeping over the horizon. Hanging lanterns that were set all along the roads were lit, allowing for a dim glow to light up their path.

They finally made their way to the inn, a wide, two story building. The circled around as inconspicuously as they could given that they were, more or less, sneaking around. When they got to the designated spot they saw that there was no one there.

"It looks like we missed them," Furno stated, looking around.

"No, they're here alright," Orion said.

"How can you tell?" Zero questioned.

"Because she's right behind you."

Team Dawn Breaker whirled around and were met with a smirking Weavile. She was only about a foot taller than Zero, but she had an air of confidence if not arrogance about her that made her seem taller. She had her arm crossed across her chest and was leaning against the inn wall in a lax manner. She eyed the assembled group with a lazy smirk, her entire being screaming relaxed if not bored.

"Holy Arceus!" Quill shrieked in surprise.

"Quiet you idiot!" the Weavile snapped harshly, glaring at the offending Quilladin. "Do you want the whole town to hear you?"

"Sorry!" Quill squeaked weakly, backing away slightly.

"Broker," Orion interjected curtly, stepping forward to gain the Weavile's attention.

The second the Weavile saw the Lucario, her expression did a completely one eighty. "Orion!" she gushed, smiling widely. "It's so good to see you!"

"I wish I could say the same thing."

"Oh, why must you be so cruel to me!" she bemoaned only for her cheeky grin to ruin the sentiment.

"Broker," Orion growled in warning.

"Keep your shorts on, I'm just playing," she pouted. "You're always so serious."

"I don't have time for your games, Broker."

"Oh come now, Orion." She stepped closer, well within the Lucario's personal space. "It's been so long since we last saw each other. Can't we just...spend some time together? You know what they say: all work and no play makes me a dull girl."

"I'm here on business."

"That didn't stop you before~" she teased, trailing her claw-like fingers across Orion's fur.

To Orion's credit, he kept his face devoid of emotion, though a dusting of pink could be seen on his cheeks. The broker saw this and grinned triumphantly. She made to say something else, but a light cough interrupted her.

"Uh...do you want us to, you know, go?" Quill asked tentatively.

"No," Orion said immediately.

"Yes," Broker said at the same time, glaring at the Quilladin.

"Broker, this isn't a social call. I'm here for the information you promised," Orion said, his voice tight.

"Fine," the Weavile huffed. She then grinned up at the Lucario. "Always to the point, aye Orion?"

"Just give me the information."

Broker rolled her eyes, but kept her grin. She pulled out a small scroll from the satchel that she had on her back. "Here you go, as requested," she said as she handed it to Orion. The aura Pokémon made to take the scroll, but the Weavile pulled it back before he could. "Ah, ah, ah," she teased, waving a finger as if she were scolding a child. "I require payment for my services."

"The resistance already payed you ahead of time," Orion growled, reaching for the scroll again, but the broker kept it out of his reach.

"Not monetary payment," she drawled, rolling her eyes as if Orion was an idiot. She then leaned forward, presenting her cheek. "A kiss and the information is yours."

Orion growled angrily at the dark-ice type, but she just grinned unrepentedly. Seeing that nothing short of him attacking her would get him the information faster, Orion relented. With a grown, he leaned down and gave the Weavile a chaste kiss on her cheek.

"Oh Orion!" she squealed suddenly, leaping up and wrapping her arms around the Lucario's neck, causing the blue canine to yelp in surprise. "I knew you loved me!"

"Get off," Orion growled, pushing the Weavile off his shoulders. Instead of looking put out, the Weavile just continued to grin.

"Well, a deal's a deal," she said, holding out the scroll for Orion to take.

Orion was quick to snatch the scroll from the sharp claw Pokémon, scowling as he did so. He quickly unrolled the scroll, glanced at its contents, and rolled it back up. "Everything seems to be in order."

"What information is on it?" Zero asked curiously.

"And who are you?" the Weavile questioned, stepping closer to the Riolu, her eyes cold but genuinely curious.

"He's part of the resistance," Orion said. "They all are."

"Hmph. Well if the resistance hasn't deemed it important enough to tell you then it's not my place to tell you," she said with a dismissive shrug. She turned away from the young team, seeming to deem them unworthy of her time, and addressed Orion. "If that's all I'll be taking my leave. It was nice to see you again. Maybe next time, we could-"

"Goodbye, Broker," Orion interrupted.

"Spoilsport," she chuckled. She then leapt into the air and landed gracefully on the roof of the inn. With a final wave and a sly grin, the Weavile disappeared into the night.

After a few seconds, Quill broke the silence. "So...is there something going on between-"

"No." Orion snapped, scowling at the place where the broker once stood.

"I mean, it's fine if there is. We won't think any different of you."

"I said no," Orion said firmly, turning his glare onto Quill.

"Okay. Whatever you say," Quill said quickly, holding up his hands in surrender, though the mischievous twinkle in his eyes told them that he had not bought the Lucario's story.

"She was rather...eccentric," Weiss commented. "More so than other Weavile."

"Unfortunately she's always been like that," Orion sighed. "Living life on the edge as she does taught her to live every day as if it were her last. Which means she has almost no filter."

"I guess that makes sense," Furno said.

"No it doesn't," Weiss argued. "Just because she lives a dangerous life doesn't mean she can be so rude! I mean, did you see how she snubbed us!"

"That's just how she is and it's unlikely she'll change," Orion said with a shrug. He glanced up at the sky and saw that the stars were starting to come out. "I guess we should get a room for the night."

He moved to walk around the corner, but was stopped by Bella as she suddenly appeared right in front of him. She rapidly shook her head, hopping from foot to foot in urgency.

"Bella? What's wrong?" Zero asked, stepping over to his frantic teammate.

His response was a series of agitated grunts and insistent pointing in the direction of the inn. Zero could not make heads or tails of what the ghost type was trying to say. "I don't understand..."

Orion frowned at the Banette. He then closed his eyes, his facial features becoming relaxed. The four teardrop protrusions raised up, becoming horizontal with his head. As this happened, Zero felt a strange energy wash over him, like a light wave rushing past him. Before he could question this, Orion opened his eyes, his expression grim.

"We need to go."

"Huh?" Furno questioned, surprised by the urgency in the Lucario's voice. "What do you mean? What about the inn?"

"Then inn's not an option now, unfortunately," Orion said, peaking past the corner. "There are soldiers here."


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

Exodus

"There are soldiers _here_?!" Furno exclaimed before being hushed by Orion.

"It appears so," the Lucario whispered, his expression grim, his eyes closed. "I can see three of them in the inn talking to the innkeeper and several more stationed sporadically around the town."

"How can you see them?" Zero asked, curious despite the situation.

"My aura sight," Orion said, almost offhandedly, as he turned his head to the east, his eyes still firmly closed. "It looks like there are several soldiers moving along the east wall along with several fliers circling the town."

"How exactly can you see with your eyes closed?" Weiss asked skeptically.

"Aura sight," Orion said curtly. "If we cut through the alleys and stick to the shadows, we _might_ be able to make it to the clock tower."

"And after that?" Furno asked.

"Let's take this one step at a time," Orion said. He slowly crept to the corner, poking his muzzle out ever so slightly. He raised a paw to halt the young team's advancement. He stood stock still for a few seconds before dropping his paw hastily. "Let's go!"

With that, the group raced around the inn and into the street.

"Hey! Stop!"

"Crap," Orion hissed, hearing the shout. "Come on! Don't look back!"

Team Dawn Breaker did as instructed and pushed forward, ignoring the annoyed and enraged shouts from behind them. As their footsteps thundered across the ground, the crackling sound electricity roared. Acting on pure instinct, Zero leapt into the air, swirling blue winds whipping around him, and sent out a vacuum wave that crashed into the bolt of lightning that had been heading towards the group. The two attacked exploded against the other, creating a large cloud of black smoke that hid the group and their pursuers from view.

"Good work, Zero!" Orion commended. "Now let's go."

The group continued forward, ducking into an alleyway before the smoke dissipated. The resistance members waited with bated breath as their pursuers shouted several colorful curses when their quarry was not in sight. After several shouts, the group their pursuers converse in harsh tones before the sound of their retreating footsteps echoed through the night.

"That was close," Orion said, releasing the breath he had been holding. "Now the explosion more than likely caught the attention of the other soldiers."

"That would mean that they will flock to this location," Weiss reasoned.

"They'll also, more than likely, put more soldiers around the entrance of the town," Orion added. "We won't be able to leave."

"Maybe we can muscle through?" Quill suggested.

"We'll plan our next course of action when we get to a more secure location," Orion said firmly. He once more closed his eyes, the black teardrop-like protrusions on the back of his head floating slightly. A second later he cursed. "Dammit. We've got a lot of soldiers moving towards this location."

"Can we still get to the clock tower?" Zero asked.

"It doesn't look like it," Orion said. With everyone moving towards us, getting away without being spotted will be next to impossible."

At that, Bella's face lit up. She hopped around from foot to foot, shaking Zero's arm to gain his attention. Relenting to the Banette's needs, Zero gave her a questioning look. Giving several grunts, she pointed to herself then to the streets several times. A dawning look of flashed on the Riolu's face before he became worry.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "It will be risky."

Bella just nodded in response, eagerness clear in her eyes. Zero still looked conflicted, but sighed in acceptance and nodded. Bella gave a joyous grunt before fading from view.

"Where'd she go?" Orion questioned.

"She went to cause a distraction," Zero answered, looking out into the street, worry evident in his eyes.

"And you just let her?!" Weiss exclaimed harshly.

"Better question, you can understand her?!" Quill asked.

"It wouldn't be the first time she's done something like this," Furno said to Weiss, ignoring Quill's question. "She did something like this back when we were at that soldier base. If she hadn't, we wouldn't be hear today."

"I trust her," Zero reassured, though he still looked worried. "Just give her time."

The sextet waited in the alley for several minutes, though it felt a lot longer. When they still heard nothing, they began to fear the worst.

"This isn't good," Weiss commented. "We still haven't heard anything. She may have been captured."

"There's no way she was captured!" Zero vehemently denied.

"Then how else do you explain the fact that _nothing_ has happened?!" Weiss inquired haughtily.

Zero ignored her and turned to Orion. "Can you sense her at all?"

"No, but the soldiers are getting closer to our location," Orion said grimly. "At this rate, we'll be-"

Whatever he was going to say was lost as a series of explosion erupted from further away. Taken aback, the group from the resistance jumped in surprise. Several loud voices came from farther down the street before growing softer as they ran in the direction of the explosions.

"You were saying, Weiss?" Zero said smugly.

"Lucky break," she grumbled, turning her head so that she did not have to see the Riolu's face.

"She gave us the chance we needed, let's go!" Orion shouted ushering the group through the alley and into the street, away from the where the explosions had occurred.

Once again keeping to the shadows, the group crept through the town, mindful of the soldiers that were roaming through the town. After a painfully long amount of time, they finally reached the large clock tower in the center of town.

After checking to see if the coast was clear, Orion dashed out of the alley and into the open, running towards the tower door. Testing to the door, Orion was grateful to see that it was unlocked, the Lucario was quick to wave the young team over. "Come on!"

Without further prompting, the now quintet, raced towards the tower. They quickly ducked into the tower, not even sparing a backwards glance. Once the young team were safely in the tower, Orion gave one more cursory look to the streets for any sign of the emperor's soldiers before closing and locking the door.

With the door locked, and the team safe for the moment, Orion led the group up several flights of old wooden steps to the very top of the tower. Passing by the various cogs and turning gears that were stationed all over the inside of the tower, the group reached the final landing.

Stepping out onto the wooden floor, they all could see the various beams and supports of the tower along with the inside of the clock face, which, while slightly opaque, allowed moonlight to filter into the room. The light showed several charts and blueprints of what appeared to be several of the machines that powered the tower hanging from the wall and a desk on the opposite side of the room. They saw an oil lamp on the desk, but the group did not dare light it for fear of it being noticed.

"I guess this place is as good as any to rest," Orion said, leaning against the clock face which was thankfully strong enough to support his weight. "Now we can explore our options."

"Not a lot of options to explore if what you said about the whole town crawling with soldiers is true," Quill grumbled.

"Speaking of which, how can you be sure that there are soldiers are truly occupying the town?" Weiss demanded, her teal eyes full of suspicion. "After all, we saw nothing while when we entered the city."

"Considering how many there are, it is more than likely that they were lying in wait for us to enter the city," Orion said. "I did not think of looking with my aura sight to see if there were any here and for that, I am sorry."

"What is this aura sight you speak of?" Dusty asked curiously. "You have mentioned it several times and I can only infer that it is some ability that allows you to see further than what you would normally."

"Got it in one," Orion said, smiling slightly. "Aura sight is an ability unique to Lucario and, on rare occasions, Riolu. Because the Lucario line is incredibly sensitive to the life energy of our world, or aura, they can sense others through their aura as it ripples through the constant supply of aura that filters through the air. In some cases, Lucario can tap into this natural aura and, through sending out a pulse of their own aura, see what is basically a map of the nearby area, complete with buildings, trees, and even Pokémon."

"Like echolocation," Weiss reasoned, a thoughtful expression on her face. "That is an incredible ability."

"It is," Orion said. "Unfortunately, however, this ability is not passive. It requires the active pulsing of my aura. Because of that, I was unable to sense the soldiers."

"Well, can you see anyway out of this place?" Furno questioned.

Orion frowned before closing his eyes. Once more, his black extensions lifted into the air. This time, Zero felt a pulse wash over him, stemming from Orion, and pushed out past him, blanketing the room. "It doesn't look good," Orion said grimly, not opening his eyes. "There's only one way in and out of the city and it's being guarded by four soldiers. Judging by the amount of aura they're giving off, I'd say that they're all at least lieutenant level in strength."

"You can sense a Pokémon's strength with aura?" Zero asked, amazed over the uses of aura.

"Yes, though it is possible for one to hide their true power...I'm getting off topic. The point of the matter is, we'd have to punch through those three, not to mention either fight or avoid the other soldiers that are in the city."

"Well we _could_ do that," Quill pointed out. "If the three are only lieutenant level in strength -which, by the way, I have no idea what that means- we can, at the very least, incapacitate them and escape. I mean, we did defeat a captain when it was just me, Zero, and Furno."

"But we'd still need to get through the rest of the town," Weiss pointed out. "Not to mention that the sound of fighting will definitely draw the attention of other soldiers in the area, making it even harder to escape."

"Plus we wouldn't be able to put enough distance between us and the soldiers that, without a shadow of a doubt, would attempt to pursue us," Dusty added.

"Well, that would be better than just standing around here," Quill snapped heatedly. "We're sitting Ducklett in here!"

"Keep it down," Orion hissed, opening his eyes and glaring reproachfully. "We don't want to garner any unwanted attention!"

No sooner had Orion said this, the sound of some kind of material shifting around near the stairs reached their ears. On instinct, Orion formed an aura sphere and sent it fired it at the stares towards a stunned Bella. As the attack hit the startled ghost type, and Furno started to shout, the sphere burst like a water balloon, leaving the Banette unharmed.

Furno's shout died in his throat. "What?"

Orion sighed heavily, smiling in relief. "Good thing fighting type moves don't affect ghost types. Sorry about that, Bella," he added, seeing the rather cross glare that the Banette was sending him.

The marionette Pokémon gave a guttural growl and started to stalk towards the Lucario, but Zero was quick to run interference. "Good job with distracting the soldiers, Bella," he said quickly. "You didn't happen to see any other way out of the town aside from the main entrance, did you?"

The ghost type smiled at the compliment before frowning. She regretfully shook her head, churring depressingly. Zero sighed but smiled reassuringly, patting the ghost type on the head. "It's fine, Bella," he said. "You did fine."

Bella's demeanor did a complete one eighty as a large zippered smile stretched across his face. Before Zero could react, he was enveloped in one of the ghost type's patented bone crushing hugs. "Grk! Okay, okay! I get it, you're happy! Now let go!"

Bella just chittered happily and squeezed tighter, only to stop when Orion cleared his throat. "Well, I can see that you two have a rather...intimate relationship-"

"We do not!" Zero exclaimed, Bella offering her own growl and frigid glare.

"-but we still don't have a way out of this town," Orion finished, giving no indication that he had heard the Riolu, other than the sly smirk on his face.

"How did it get like this?" Furno lamented. "Why are there soldiers here? How did they know we were here?"

"That's a good question, actually," Weiss said thoughtfully. "How did they know that we were here? We didn't even choose this mission or give any inclination that we were coming here?"

"I'm afraid that this may be my fault," Orion muttered sadly.

"What do you mean by that?" Weiss growled.

"Wait, it's not what you think!" Orion exclaimed, realizing what Weiss was thinking. "What I mean is, I'm a high interest target to the emperor, almost on the same level as Stride. It's more than likely they found out that I'd be here and you all were just caught up in all of this."

"That still doesn't explain how they knew _you'd_ be here," Furno pointed out. "You said that this was an S-rank mission, right? Well that would mean that only the tribunal would know that you took this mission."

"That right," Zero realized. "S-rank missions are handled exclusively by the tribunal. Only they would know that Orion was taking this mission."

"So what are you saying?" Orion questioned. "That one of the tribunal ratted me out to the emperor?"

"That's highly unlikely," Weiss said. "They literally run the Latios division, why would they put someone in the resistance at risk?"

"Hey, don't they have like a secretary?" Furno asked.

"Yeah, now that you mention it, there was that Mawile that showed us in when we first met the tribunal," Zero pondered. "Do you think that she had something to do with it?"

"You mean Calla?" Orion asked, frowning lightly. "I mean, she does have access to secure information, but the tribunal handpicked her. That means she has to be trustworthy."

"Okay, but what other option is there?" Zero asked, crossing his arms resolutely. "The only other people that knew about this mission, besides the tribunal and their secretary, are you..."

"...and the broker," Dusty finished, earning wide eyes from the group. "She is the only other Pokémon that knew that Orion would be here tonight."

"You think that the broker set us up?" Zero asked.

"It is only one of the many possibilities," Dusty answered. "However, she did leave rather hurriedly."

"After she was done flirting with with Orion," Quill quipped.

"That's enough out of you," Orion said rather crossly. "However, what Dusty is saying does make sense, but we have contacted her on numerous occasions and not once has she turned any of them in."

"But you said it yourself that she has no allegiance. She could have been hired by the emperor to turn us in," Zero pointed out.

"That is a possibility, but we do not have time to discuss it," Orion said. "We still need to figure out a way to get out of here."

Zero frowned, thinking of someway to get out of their current situation. "I would suggest having Bella run another interference, but there are way too many soldiers for one Pokémon to distract. Not to mention that it is likely that they have a ghost type with them that will be able to follow her."

"Maybe if we make some kind of diversion and lead the majority of the soldiers away from the gates..." Quill suggested.

"There's no way that they'd leave the gate unattended," Weiss immediately shut down Quill's proposal.

"Well what do _you_ suggest, _princess_?" Quill jeered.

Weiss opened her mouth to reply with what would have most likely been a scathing comment when a voice came from below them. "Hello? Is someone there?!"

"Crap!" Furno exclaimed, before clamping his hands over his mouth, but the damage was done.

"Who's there?!" the voice demanded. "I'm coming up!"

"What do we do? What do we do?!" Quill whispered frantically.

"We don't have a choice," Zero said grimly, slipping into a fighting stance, facing the stairs. "We're going to have to take them out and make a break for the exit."

They all nodded in agreement and prepared to attack. They waited with bated breath as footsteps cut through silence and steadily got louder as someone climbed the stairs. The resistance members tensed in preparation as two round ears peaked out from below. Just as the Pokémon's head crested above the landing, and the group was about to attack, Zero recognized the Pokémon.

"May?"

The now identified Mienfoo jolted upon hearing her name. Staring pointedly in the dim light, the Mienfoo's eyes widened in shock. "Zeke? Flame?"

Looks of confusion and surprise were present all around. Both Zero and Furno were shocked that a face that they never expected to encounter again was now suddenly in front of them, Orion and the others were confused as to why the duo knew an apparent soldier, and May was just as surprised as Zero and Furno.

"Wh-What are you guys doing here?" May asked, coming out her stupor and ascending the rest of the way to stand before the group. "Last time I saw you two it was at Glaucuous Town. Were you called here to be part of this operation too? And who are they?" she added, gesturing to the others.

"Uhh...these are... Oran, Spike, Brick, Scarlet, and Mary," Zero said, pointing to Orion, Quill, Dusty, Weiss, and Bella respectively. "They're, uh, new recruits, well, Oran's not, but the rest of them are. Oran's a lieutenant actually"

"Oh! That's good to hear!" May exclaimed, giving the still confused group a wide smile and a thumbs up. "It's good to know that there are still those willing to join our cause!" She then turned to Orion, her smile still in place. "Where were you stationed before you were called here. It must be a ways away because I never knew that we had any Lucario lieutenants."

"Uh, Tiberion Falls," Orion said, a mask forming over his face that his continued confusion.

"Oh, that _is_ a ways away!" May exclaimed.

"Yes, well, when I heard that we had a chance of catching dangerous criminal, I jumped at the chance," Orion said, sending a glance to Zero and Furno.

"Uh, _Zeke_ ," Weiss interrupted, causing the Riolu to flinch involuntarily. "Where exactly did you meet this...individual."

"Oh, well um...Fur-Flame and I met her while we were _stationed_ at _Glaucuous Town_ ," Zero said, stressing his words and sending meaningful looks to his team and Orion.

"Oh, I recall you telling us about that," Quill said, understanding flickering in his eyes. "That was a couple months ago, right?"

"That's right," Furno said, a little too quickly. "It was our first assignment!"

"Yeah, must have been a tough break though," May said.

"Wh-What do you mean?" Furno asked nervously.

"I mean, there was that break in and then the town's capture several weeks later," May elaborated. "That must have been a tough on you guys."

"O-Oh. Oh yeah! I mean, it was tough," Furno yelped, fumbling over his words. "We were some of the few soldiers that avoided capture."

"Well, I'm glad you two got out of there," May said sincerely before frowning. "Hey, what are you guys doing up here anyway?"

"Uh," Zero stumbled, still reeling over the fact that the Mienfoo was not aware that _they_ were the infiltrators. "W-We thought that the resistance members had fled to the tower."

"But that doesn't explain why you locked the door," May added with a frown.

"Oh...we...um, thought that, if they were in here, locking the door would delay them if they get past us," Furno supplied, crossing his fingers in prayer that the Mienfoo would believe him.

"Huh, I guess that makes sense," May reasoned, not noticing the collective sighs being released by the resistance members. "Have you seen them?"

"N-No," Quill said. "We haven't seen hide nor hair of them."

"Damn," May cursed. "You'd think that a Lucario would stand out." As she said this, her gaze found Orion. "A Lucario," she mumbled, her eyes narrowing. "You know, it's kind of strange that they sent a Lucario to go after another Lucario."

"W-Well, you know what they say, 'to catch a criminal, you've got to think like a criminal.' The higher ups figured that a Lucario would have a better chance at finding another Lucario," Orion said quickly, his mind racing. "I, of course, volunteered as I hated the idea of one of my species assisting in those horrible revolutionists made my blood boil."

"Hmm...that's a very noble goal," May said after several seconds of silence. "I just wish that there were more that share your sentiment."

"I do too," Orion nodded agreeably.

"So, May," Weiss said, gaining the Mienfoo's attention, "have you seen the resistance members."

"No, I haven't seen any sign of them," May said depressedly before perking up almost instantly. "But I'm sure that we'll find them and they will be brought to justice!"

"...Right," Weiss said, unsure of how to deal with the exuberant fighting type.

"Hey, May!" Zero said, an idea popping into his head. "Is there anyway to get out of the town besides the main entrance?"

"Hmm..." May pondered. "No, none that I can-hang on. There _is_ one. A secret back entrance on the other side of town. It was created by the townspeople in case of an attack, but there's no way that they'd know about that. It's supposed to be a town secret."

"But what if they did?" Quill jumped in, catching onto what Zero was trying to do. "If they somehow found out about this 'secret exit' they could be making their way to it right now!"

"You're right!" May gasped in horror. "They could be in the process of escaping as we speak!" With that, she dashed towards the stairs, only stopping to shout, "Come on! We can't let them escape justice!" before running down the stairs.

The group met each others gazes for a split second before quickly following the Mienfoo down the stairs and out of the tower and, hopefully, their freedom.

-Resistance-

"Come on, it's this way!" May shouted to the seven following her.

After leaving the tower, the group from the resistance followed the young lieutenant through the streets. They were incredibly thankful that they had convinced the Mienfoo that they were soldiers, but they highly doubted that their charade would work on others. As such, whenever they saw soldiers approaching them, they would convince May to take an alleyway to cut through the town faster. In reality this only increased the amount of time it took to reach the secret exit, but it was worth it.

After twenty or so minutes, which May thankfully did not comment on, too caught up in her own desire to catch the 'resistance members' to notice anything amiss, they left the confines of the town and reached the surrounding wall. The large wooden structure towered over the group, the sharpened points casting ominous shadows on the ground, like a large set of teeth poised to bit down and tear the town apart.

"Here we are," May said, panting lightly, eyes glimmering with anticipation.

Furno stepped forward and looked around. Seeing nothing but the wall and a few large stones, he turned to May confused. "Um, I don't see an exit."

"Well of course not, silly," May mock scolded. "It wouldn't be much of a secret if anyone who passes by sees it!"

"I guess that makes sense," Furno relented. "So...where is it."

Instead of answering, the Mienfoo made her way over to one of the larger stones, roughly three feat in height and four in diameter. Getting behind it, she began to push the stone away. With a grunt, and an amazing show of strength, she pushed the stone several feet away, revealing a large hole leading straight down into an underground tunnel.

"Just like in Glaucuous Town," Furno whispered lowly, but May heard him.

"What was that?" she questioned. "There was a secret tunnel in Glaucuous Town too?"

"Y-Yeah," Zero said, thinking quickly. "It's how those resistance members got in during the attack."

"That makes perfect sense!" May declared, pounding a fist into her open paw. "That must be how they won; they caught us off guard! Those scoundrels! Using such cheap tactics to win a battle! It's despicable!"

"Y-Yeah, despicable," Quill readily agreed.

May nodded, seemingly happy that Quill was agreeing with her. She then looked around searchingly. "I don't see any sign of those scoundrels or signs that this stone has been moved. I must not have come by this way. I guess we should head back and report to the captain..."

"O-Or _you_ can go report to the captain while we stay here and...keep watch," Weiss said, smiling rather pathetically. "A-After all, what if those resistance scumbags come by while we're gone? No one's guarding this place!"

"You're right, Scarlet!" May exclaimed, her eyes wide at the shiny Absol's 'realization'. "They could slip out while we're reporting!" Her eyes then flashed with admiration and pride. "That's really goo thinking, private. And here I thought that you Blood Absol were all about fighting, not brains!"

Weiss visibly winced at that, earning puzzled and worried glances from her teammates. "What's a...Blood Absol?" Furno finally asked.

"What? You mean you've been working with her and you don't know what a Blood Absol is?!" May asked, utterly perplexed before appearing to think better of herself. "Then again, I guess it's not exactly a conversation starter. Anyway, Blood Absol are-"

"Shouldn't you be getting to the captain?" Weiss interrupted, her voice slightly scathing. Realizing that her attitude might blow their cover, she quickly added, "I-I mean, we don't exactly have time to discuss these things with resistance members running around, do we?"

Team Dawn Breaker gave their teammate inquiring looks, but Weiss refused to meet their gazes. May originally appeared put out by Weiss, but quickly regained her determined expression. "Right!" she declared, puffing out her chest. "I'll be back before you know it!"

The grouped nodded in assent, inwardly grateful that the soldier would be leaving and they would be home free. However, luck was not on their side.

Just as the Mienfoo was about to run off, a voice from above called out. "Lieutenant May!"

Looking up, the seven resistance members found their collective stomachs dropping at the sight of a Murkrow with the emperor's symbol wrapped around their leg flying down towards them. The dark-flying type swooped in, landing gracefully in front of the martial arts Pokémon, its red eyes boring into May's eyes.

"Lieutenant, what on earth are you doing here?!" the Murkrow crowed unhappily.

"Captain Corvus!" May yelped, suddenly nervous.

"That Murkrow's a captain?" Furno whispered to Zero.

"I guess so," Zero responded, keeping his gaze never leaving the new arrival.

"I want an answer, Lieutenant," the captain growled.

I-I decided- I mean, we decided that the criminals could have been attempting to make their way to this tunnel!" May stuttered, shifting nervously.

"I see," the Murkrow said, eyes flashing towards Zero and the others. "And just _who_ are they?"

By this point, the group was starting to sweat nervously under the diminutive Pokémon's gaze. May, on the other hand, just looked confused. "What do you mean?" she asked. "They're soldiers."

"Oh, really?" Corvus scoffed disbelievingly. "Then how come I don't know about them?"

"What?" May questioned, a look of surprise on her face. "How's that possible?"

"What I want to know is how it's possible that you _blindly_ trusted seven strangers and showed them an exit that was supposed to be kept secret!" Corvus said, his voice steadily getting louder until he was shouting.

May violently flinched at the captain's voice. "B-But, I know Zeke and Flame from Glaucuous Town!" she said, still in denial.

"Oh? And who are they?" Corvus inquired.

"The Riolu and Chimchar," May said, frowning at the tense posture of her new 'friends'.

"A Riolu and Chimchar," Corvus mused, his eyes paralyzing Zero and Furno with his intensity. Despite the Pokémon's small stature, the duo could not help but feel choked by the Murkrow's presence. It was not as intimidating as Aster, but it was comparable to that of Spikefang. Regardless, it was frightening.

"If I recall," Corvus continued, a strange glint flickering in his eyes, "a Riolu and Chimchar infiltrated Glaucuous Town, impersonated a pair of soldiers, attacked several officials, including Captain Spikefang, and escaped only to return several week later and assist in the take over of Glaucuous Town."

Zero and Furno winced, their lie falling apart in front of them. Poor May just looked completely lost, not understanding what was going on. The rest of the resistance members were tensing, ready to fight.

Corvus flapped his wings pompously. "It is my belief that the those two, along with the other five, are enemies of the emperor!" he declared, his eyes gleaming. "They are the resistance members reported to have infiltrated this fair town, the Lucario being the high profile criminal Orion. You seven shall be arrested and brought before a judge for-GACK!"

The crow was cut off by Orion suddenly appearing before him and punching him, his fist engulfed in a frosty blue energy. As the cry of pain left the Murkrow's beak, ice began to creep up his body before the bird was completely engulfed.

"C-Captain!" May exclaimed in alarm. Her head swung towards the two young 'soldiers' that she had met from Glaucuous Town. "Zeke? Flame? What's going on?"

Both Riolu and Chimchar looked to be in pain, their faces twisted in conflict. After several seconds of tense silence, Zero stepped forward. "Sorry, May," he apologized before blurring forward. Before the shell shocked Mienfoo could react, Zero had slammed a paw into her stomach, a flash of energy releasing from his paw not a second later.

May gasped in pain as she was flung backwards, smashing into the boulder that had once covered the tunnel with enough force to crack the stone. Everyone visibly flinched at the hard thud that came from the fighting type's head bouncing off the hard stone. She slumped to the ground, limp like a rag doll.

Zero stared regretfully at the unconscious Mienfoo, truly upset that he had to knock out the peppy fighting type, but they had to get out of Toure. "Come on. We need to get out of here. _Now_." he stressed.

The rest of the group nodded in agreement before diving one after the other into the tunnel. Zero cast one more sideways glance towards the frozen Murkrow and the unconscious Mienfoo. He could not help but feel bad for deceiving such a kind soul, despite her affiliation. See the king fighting type lying prone felt like a bad omen and Zero did not want to leave her like that, but there was no other choice. Swallowing his guilt, he jumped down the hole and he and his friends escaped Toure.

-Resistance-

After getting several miles away from Toure, the group decided to sleep in shifts in order to ensure that no one got the jump on them. Their sleep was understandably fretful, all of them worried that, at any point, soldiers would descend upon them. It was all too much of a relief when the sun began to peak over the horizon.

At the very crack of dawn, they set out for the Latios Division, not stopping for anything. When they finally made it, they were all dead on their feet.

"Ugh, sweet sanctuary!" Quill exclaimed loudly, falling to the ground and kissing the stone floors, completely oblivious to the strange looks that other resistance members were giving him.

"Stop being so over dramatic! You're making us look bad!" Weiss chided, though she herself appeared physically exhausted. "Besides, I thought that you fighting types were supposed to have _endless_ scores of energy."

"That's a lie and you know it," Quill shot back, refusing to get back to his feet.

"Come on you lot," Orion grumbled good-naturedly, hoisting a reluctant Quill to his feet. "We need to report our findings to the tribunal, including the possibility that the broker is working for the emperor."

"Or their secretary," Quill mumbled.

"Yes, that too," Orion said with an almost fond eye roll. "Let's go."

"There you are!" Stride said, practically appearing out of thin air, his arms crossed and his tired eyes showcasing annoyance.

"Stride!" Orion yelped, jumping at the ninja Pokémon's sudden appearance. "Wh-What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," Stride replied, eyeing the group and noting their fatigue. "The tribunal said that you had been sent out on an S-rank mission. I didn't think that the mission involved taking a young team with you."

"W-Well, you and your team were going through some stuff and you ordered Team Dawn Breaker to not go out unless accompanied by a senior member..."

"So you took them on a _S_ -rank mission?" Stride asked, stressing the 'S' in S-rank.

"Well it was only a mission to meet the broker," Orion said, shifting awkwardly.

"And I suppose that everything went according to plan?" Stride questioned, raising a brow at the Lucario's nervous demeanor.

"We may have run into a few...snags," Orion said rather evasively.

Stride looked from the Lucario to Team Dawn Breaker, all of whom were making a point not to meet the Greninja's searching gaze. After several seconds, Stride just sighed. "Whatever, it doesn't matter. After you give you report, Orion, you're coming with me."

"I'm sorry, what?" Orion asked, taken aback.

"You're coming with me after you're done with your report," Stride repeated, scowling slightly.

"Uh, can I ask why?" Orion inquired.

"The Ruins of Reminiscence."

Orion's eyes widened. "You got permission to go?"

"Yes, though the rest of my team will have to stay and guard Razed Ridge," Stride confirmed. "I can't got it alone. Please Orion. Please help me," he pleaded.

Once more Orion was taken aback, this time due to Stride's sincere pleadings. The Lucario eventually sighed in defeat, offering a small smile to the Greninja. "Alright, I'll help."

"Excellent!" Stride said, looking noticeably more relieved and less stressed. "We'll leave as soon as you're done with your report." The Greninja then turned to his young charges. "Things should have calmed down enough for you all to be able to go out on missions on your own. You won't have me or any of the other members of Team Surge to help you so, if you need any help, you can ask my brother and his team."

"Okay..." Zero said uncertainly, slightly lost and overwhelmed by what was going on. "But Stride-"

"I'll go prepare our travel pack," Stride said, turning back to Orion, seemingly not hearing Zero. "It will be a long road, so I'll need to grab some things now. Meet my at Team Surge's quarters when you're done."

"Wait, but Stride," Zero said, trying to gain the water-dark type's attention, but, once again, he went unheard.

"See you then," Stride said, turning around and rushing off.

"Never mind then," Zero huffed.

"Welp. I guess there ain't no rest for the wicked, so to speak," Orion sighed, smiling tiredly at the young team. "You guys go ahead back to your rooms. You earned a break. I'll give my report to the tribunal."

"Thank you," Zero said gratefully.

Orion nodded, smiling at his pre-evolution. "Well I better get going. I'll see you guys when I see you guys," he said before leaving in the direction of the tribunal's chambers."

"Oh thank Arceus!" Quill rasped out, throwing his hands into the air. "I can't _wait_ to sleep in my own bed."

"It will be nice," Weiss reluctantly agreed. "I don't care for camping if it can be avoided."

"You're agreeing with me?!" Quill shouted, clutching his heart as if hearing shocking news. "It's the apocalypse!"

"Oh quiet you," Weiss snapped half-heartedly.

The team laughed, much to the Absol's chagrin, and began to make their way to their rooms. As they walked, Zero frowned as a thought crossed his mind.

"Hey, Weiss?" The Absol in question turned to look at her leader.

"Yes, Zero?"

"Back at Toure, May...called you something, right?"

"Oh yeah!" Quill jumped in. "It was like, bloody Absol or something like that."

Weiss ducked her head, avoiding eye contact, and stayed silent for two more floors. "A Blood Absol," she said, breaking the silence. "She called me a Blood Absol."

"Yeah, that was it!" Quill exclaimed, acting as if he had thought of it himself.

After elbowing the Quilladin, Furno spoke. "What exactly _is_ a Blood Absol."

"It is...more or less what you call shiny Absol," Weiss said after a few more seconds of silence.

"But why did you react like you did at Toure if that's all it means?" Zero questioned, not believing that it was simply another name for a shiny Absol.

Weiss sighed tiredly. "It's...complicated," she said. "Shiny Pokémon in general are born through a mutation in a Pokémon's genes. In most species, it just means a color change, but in some...it means something else entirely."

A shiver seemed to run through the Absol as she spoke as if she had just remembered something rather unpleasant. She took a deep breath before continuing shakily. "In Absol species, shiny Absol are known as Blood Absol, not only because of our color, but because of our mindset."

"Your mindset?" Furno asked curiously.

"They... _We_ ," she corrected hastily, "are prone to more...violent tendencies. We become much more aggressive in battle, sometimes to the point where we develop something called bloodlust. Our thoughts become clouded and all we can think about is fighting and...in some cases..."

"Killing," Zero realized, earning a slow nod from Weiss. "But you don't act like that."

"I've spent almost my entire life fighting my inner desires," Weiss explained. "All my life I've fought the urge to fight, to kill my opponent, no matter who it was." At that point, actual tears began to pool in the Absol's eyes. "To combat this, I tried to dissociate myself from others, becoming cold and unfeeling towards others."

"That explains your attitude during basic training," Quill commented, though his voice held no malice or contempt. Just understanding.

"It hurt," Weiss revealed, her tears now falling. "Having to act like that, pushing away everyone, but I had no other way of fighting my urges. Then I joined you guys."

Here, she paused. Her entire body trembling with barely suppressed emotions. "I tried to act as I normally do, cold and unfeeling, but that didn't work with all of you," she said. "I don't know what it is about you all, but I can't help but let go when I'm with you all. It's like, you all bring out all that I've hidden away."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Furno asked.

"No!" Weiss shouted, her head whipping around to glare at the Chimchar. "If I lose control for even a second, I'll lose what little control I have of my urges! Even now, I feel the urge to fight and keep fighting until I feel blood on my claws!"

Weiss slumped to the ground, bringing up her paws to clasp her head. "I can't let that happen," she whispered. "Not again..."

The last part was a whisper, but Zero heard her. He crouched down next to the Absol and, quite awkwardly, patted her back. "Thank you, for telling us," he said. "I'm sure it was hard for you to do that."

"Obviously," she choked out.

"But that doesn't change anything," Zero said firmly. "At first, I was hesitant about you joining the team, especially after our first mission, but you have proved yourself and come out of your shell."

"Your icy one!" Quill quipped.

"And if you have to risk giving into some of your instinct in order to do, then so be it," Zero said, ignoring the Quilladin.

"You may be willing to risk it, but not me!" Weiss snapped tearfully. "You haven't seen a Blood Absol fight before. If you did..."

"Then we'd still accept you," Zero cut in.

"Yeah, you're one of us whether you like it or not!" Furno added eagerly.

"Even if you can be an annoying, bossy, snarky, cold, egotistical, arrogant-" Quill would have said more, but stopped when he saw the glares his team was sending his way. "Anyway, you're part of the team!"

Both Dusty and Bella nodded eagerly, Bella more than Dusty, but the sentiment was there. Weiss glanced at the team and saw their sincere expression and felt a warmth flooding through her chest. A smile began to form on her face, but was quickly banished.

"You wouldn't say that if you saw what I was like," she muttered, turning her head away from the team.

"Well, I guess we'll see then, won't we," Zero said, smiling softly. "Just keep acting the way you are, don't shut us out. If you...turn, then we'll handle it. Together."

Weiss still looked skeptical, but she still nodded in assent. "Good," Zero said, standing up fully. "Now let's head back to our rooms. I think it's time we told you something."

Weiss gave the Riolu a curious look, confused as to what Zero wanted to tell her.

 **Author's Notes:**

Okay, just wanted to mention this before I got reviews about it. The wall around Toure that I mention in this chapter was part of my original design for the town, I just forgot to add it to the description into the last chapter. I have added it, but I just wanted to let you all know. Anyway, thank you all for your continued support and feel free to leave reviews.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Chilled to the Bone

A week passed since Stride and Orion's departure. As it turned out, Stride did _not_ receive permission from the Tribunal to go on his 'excursion', in fact, the Tribunal had ordered him to accompany his team to Razed Ridge. When it became apparent that Stride had not done this, the Tribunal personally interrogated Team Dawn Breaker on his whereabouts. Needless to say, they was not pleased.

Roman had practically foamed at the mouth in rage, demanding that they send a team out to retrieve the Greninja and have him brought back to be punished. Katherine, on the other hand, had suggested that they let Stride go through with his self-proclaimed mission and punish him accordingly when he returned. This, of course led to the Haxorus and Delphox arguing until Regulus broke them up. The Alakazam calmly pointed out that their higher ranking teams were spread thin and they did not have the suitable mon power to send a retrieval team out for Stride and Orion.

Zero and Furno, having known Stride longer, did not know what to think about Stride's apparent treasonous actions. They had known that the Greninja was desperate for any clue regarding the silver soul, but they did not think that he would go as far as to disobey a direct order from the tribunal. He had told them that the Tribunal's words were basically law in regards to the Latios Division. For him to go against them...it was like he was going against the resistance itself. And they were not the only one to think that.

"It's not surprising that he ran off," Razor, the Samurott from Team Torrent, commented snidely.

"What do you mean?" Furno questioned.

"Stride's always has followed his own rules, sometimes going as far as disregarding his own team's sentiments," Razor answered. "It was only a matter of time before he went against the Tribunal. I always knew he'd go traitor."

"He's not a traitor," Zero snapped. "He's doing this _for_ the resistance!"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, pup," Razor scoffed. The water type stalked off, calling over his shoulder, "If I were you two, I'd get yourselves a new role model!"

"Well it's a good thing you aren't me," Zero growled under his breath.

"Don't let him get to you, Zero," Furno consoled. "We both know Stride and he'd never go against the resistance."

Despite his words, Zero could feel the doubt edging into Furno's emotions. Zero did not comment on this, simply nodding his head passively. He allowed Furno to steer him towards their quarters. They had Quill and Weiss go look at the mission board to see what missions were available, so hopefully they would have a plan of action for the next day.

 _And something to get my mind off of this whole Stride thing,_ Zero thought to himself.

-Resistance-

"Absolutely _not_ , Quill!" Weiss shouted.

"Oh come on, don't be such a buzzkill, Weiss," Quill whined.

"A buzzkill?!" Weiss screeched. "I'm keeping us from _being_ killed! That mission is way out of our league."

"Don't worry about it," Quill said, unconcerned.

Weiss released what sounded like a shrill shriek mixed with a growl. She stalked over to the now sweating Quilladin, a promise of pain filling her eyes. This was the scene Zero and Furno walked in on.

"Uh, what's going on here?" Furno asked tentatively, freezing both Weiss and Quill in place.

"Oh thank Arceus!" Weiss exclaimed with a large sigh of relief when she saw the founding members. "Maybe you can talk this idiot out of his stupidity," she said, pointing to Quill.

"It's not stupidity," Quill denied, jumping forward. "It's an awesome plan!"

"A plan to get us all killed!" Weiss snapped.

"Is not!" Quill argued, slightly petulantly.

"Both of you, stop," Zero interrupted, giving both of them stern looks. "Dusty."

"Quill took a mission form from the board and Weiss believes that we are incapable of fulfilling it," Dusty said immediately.

"It's not that I think we're incapable. I just think it's a risky mission to take at our current skill level," Weiss grumbled.

Zero sighed tiredly, "What's the mission?"

Quill broke out into a large toothy grin. He pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to the Riolu. "It's a rescue mission to Frigid Cavern," Quill explained. "The dungeon is a few days travel, but the reward is nine thousand poké, a special band, a weather band, a violet ribbon, and a scope lens!"

"Seriously?!" Furno exclaimed, his mouth practically dropping to the floor. "That's a huge reward!"

"I know right?!" Quill said excitedly. "When I saw it on the board, I was like 'we _need_ to take that mission!'"

"Was that before or after you saw the mission ranking?" Weiss interjected, causing Quill's smile to become rather forced.

"An A-rank?" Zero asked in disbelief. "Are you for real?"

"What?" Quill questioned rather defensively. "We've handled S-rank missions before. A-rank is just a step down."

"We weren't suppose to even see combat in those missions," Zero pointed out. "Not to mention that we didn't have to go through any dungeons."

"Which means this is the chance to get some experience," Quill countered. "Plus, half of the team has a type advantage against everything in the dungeon!"

"True..."

"Look, despite our age, you have to admit that we've accomplished a lot," Quill said. "We've completed three S-rank missions, defeated a captain, defeated a Regirock-"

"Wait, what?!" Weiss exclaimed, shock evident.

"-and you and Furno escaped from a soldier's barracks!" Quill finished, ignoring Weiss. "We have gone through a lot. An A-rank will be nothing after all of that."

Zero placed a paw on his chin, contemplating Quill's words. _Quill is right, we have gone through a lot,_ he thought. _But still, we almost always had back up or some kind of Hail Mary and, since I have no desire to use final gambit again, we don't even have that. Hmm..._

Zero glanced up, looking past Quill's pleading gaze to the rest of the team. "What do you guys think?"

"Well I think this is a terrible idea!" Weiss said instantly. "The team may have done quite a lot, but we are still inexperienced! We have to take small steps, not giant leaps!"

Zero nodded his head in acceptance. "Furno?"

"I honestly don't know," Furno said nervously. "I'll admit, we've done some impressive stuff, and I guess we could _try_ and use an escape orb to escape if things get too dicey."

"Dusty?" Zero asked after getting Furno's opinion.

The Sandshrew closed his eyes in thought. "While I agree with Quill in the sentiment that we have accomplished quite a bit in our time as a team, an A-rank mission will be a difficult task," he said sagely.

"So yes or no?" Quill asked impatiently.

"I cannot say for certain," Dusty answered. "I believe that we have a good chance of completing this mission, but, at the same time, we have a chance at failing."

"So that's one for no, one for yes, and one for either or," Zero reasoned. "Bella, the final decision is up to you."

The silent Banette, now having everyone's attention, seemed to shift nervously. She looked around, both at Quill's pleading look and Weiss' glare. She looked at Zero with a pleading look, silently asking for help.

"Don't let them intimidate you," Zero said, glaring at both Quill and Weiss. "The decision is yours. Nod for yes you want to go, or shake your head for no."

Bella shifted again, glancing at the team as if gauging their strength. After a few seconds, she slowly nodded her head in assent.

"Yes!" Quill shouted, dancing around like a fool.

Weiss growled, clearly displeased over the choice. "This is a mistake."

"Stop being a sourpuss," Quill mock chided. "You're just mad you lost."

"No, I'm mad because we're taking unnecessary risks!" Weiss snapped.

"Weiss, like Furno said, if things get too tough we can use and escape orb," Zero said placatingly.

"Whatever," she huffed, strewing herself across one of the couches. "We'll need to grab a lot of items for this mission, but first..." She looked Zero straight in the eye. "What the hell did Quill mean when he said you guys _beat_ a Regirock?!"

-Resistance-

 **Frigid Cavern B1**

The dungeon was located north of the Latios Division, as such the weather was considerably colder than what they were used to. As such, they were sure to grab themselves flame scarves, scarves crafted from freely given Flareon fur. The scarves radiated heat that would keep the wearer warm in most conditions. However, despite the heat the scarves gave off, the chill of the dungeon still sent shivers through the team.

The dungeon looked like any other cave, darkened tunnels serving as the maze-like hallways of a dungeon. However, upon entering, the team quickly noticed that there were several patches of ice on the ground and walls. They also noticed that icicles hung from the ceiling in place of stalactites.

"Geez its cold," Quill bemoaned.

"It would be worse if we didn't have these scarves," Weiss huffed pompously.

"I'm surprised that you were able to get six of them," Furno commented, gingering his own scarf. "They're supposed to be really expensive."

"Yeeaah," Weiss said anxiously, not meeting Furno's eye. "We might be in the red regarding wealth."

"You spent all our money?!" Quill exclaimed loudly. "What the hell?!"

"Hey, you were the one that wanted to do this mission!" Weiss snapped back, hackles bared.

"Well...why did you get Furno one?" Quill demanded. "He's a fire type."

"Even fire types can get cold and this dungeon is supposed to get incredibly cold the further we get," Weiss argued.

"Guys!" Zero interrupted. "We're in a dungeon. Act professional!"

"Right," Weiss said abashedly.

"Sorry," Quill apologized though arms crossed in a mulish manner.

Zero shook his head at the duo's antics. "Let's just go," he said, starting to walk forward, the team following him. However, they had not been walking thirty seconds when they were forced to come to a halt as to not slam into Zero as he stopped just at the cusp of a hallway.

"What's up, Zero?" Furno questioned, confused as to why the Riolu stopped.

Instead of giving a response, Zero just frowned and pointed forward. Curious, the team looked past the Riolu and immediately saw what caused Zero to stop.

"It's...dark?" Furno said confusedly.

True to Furno's words, the hallway was incredibly dark, especially when compared to the room the team was currently in. It was strange, cave mystery dungeons always had a natural light to them that seemed to come from some unknown source, but in the hallway, it was like that light was snuffed out. Looking closely, the team could see a haze surrounding the walls and ceiling

"I've heard of dungeons like this," Weiss said. "For some unknown reason, the corridors in some mystery dungeons produce what is described as a dark fog that absorbs almost any and all light. Dungeons with this feature are even more dangerous because you won't see a wild Pokémon until their right in front of you."

"This just gets better and better," Zero grumbled under his breath. With nothing else to do, Zero tentatively stepped into the hallway and everything went black.

Wisps of shadows wafted past him, almost like smoke, flickering in and out of his vision. He tried to wave the stuff away, but it clung to him, becoming thicker for a few seconds before dispersing into the same thin ink cloud that it was before. Squinting, Zero could barely see five feat in front of him.

"Jeez it's dark," Quill complained as he and the rest of the team stepped into the corridor.

"I told you," Weiss said, brushing past Quill. "With dungeon's like these, it's incredibly difficult to navigate the d-ACK!"

 ***THUD***

"Weiss, are you okay?!" Furno asked worriedly, squinting to see the Absol's white form in the dark.

"Yeah, I'm alright," Weiss grumbled, getting back to her feet. "Just slipped on a patch of ice."

"Looks like we have another thing to watch out for," Zero grumbled. He was beginning to regret taking on this mission.

Slowly, the team began to push forward with instruction to be on the look out for changes in the corridor, wild Pokémon, patches of ice, and entrances to other rooms. Unfortunately, it did not help much as they could only see a few feat in front of them. So, after several minutes of blindly feeling around and tripping over ice patches, they saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Picking up the pace, the team raced towards the light and burst into a new room and straight into a strong blast of freezing wind and ice.

Having been in front, Zero was pushed back into the team, forcing Quill to catch him. Hissing in annoyance more than pain, Zero glanced down at himself and saw frost beginning to creep over his chest before evaporating under the heat of his scarf.

"Sno!" The team turned towards the sudden shout and saw a small Pokémon that appeared to be wearing a pale peach colored, triangular hat. Under the 'hat', the Pokémon had dark gray skin, hands and feet that were more like balls that limbs, two dot-like blue eyes, and a large thin mouth that was curved into a frown.

"A Snorunt," Quill gaped, recognizing the Pokémon. "Those things are supposed to be really rare and lucky. They say that if you find one in a dungeon, they always have poké on them!"

"That's just a rumor," Weiss sneered.

"Rumor or not, it's in our way," Zero said said, summoning a large wind around himself before hurling a vacuum wave at the smaller Pokémon.

The glare that the ice type had had vanished in an instant. Seeing the wave of wind racing towards it, the smaller Pokémon yelped loudly and scurried out of the way just as the vacuum wave slashed through the frost covered ground. Seeing the damage that the attack had caused, the Snorunt cried out fearfully and ducked behind a stalagmite, shivering in terror.

The team were at a loss at what they were seeing.

"Uh, I've never seen a dungeon Pokémon react like that," Quill said. "They're supposed to be incredibly aggressive."

"Obviously not all of them," Furno commented.

"Hrm. Dusty, you used to be a wild Pokémon, do you know what's going on?" Quill asked.

Dusty's face was a mask of neutrality, but Zero could see a calculating gleam in his eye. The Sandshrew tentatively walked forward, circling around the stalagmite to gaze at the still shivering Pokémon. As soon as the Snorunt saw Dusty, it yelped loudly and hunkered down, trying to make itself look smaller.

"Well?" Quill asked impatiently.

"...I believe that this is a newborn," Dusty said finally.

"WHAT?!" the entire team shouted, Bella voicing her own shock with a shrill grunt.

"A newborn?! Are you sure?!" Weiss demanded.

"I am almost certain," Dusty replied, eyeing the shivering form.

"B-But how?!" Weiss stuttered. "There are only dungeon Pokémon here!"

"And?" Dusty questioned, the slightest hint of disdain could be heard. "Despite an increased aggression, dungeon Pokémon are still Pokémon. They can still procreate."

Weiss opened her mouth to say something, but paused, apparently thinking better of it. She bowed her head in an apologetic manner. "I apologize for my crass words. I did not mean anything by it. It's just..."

"You never really think about dungeon Pokémon having families," Furno finished. "All we really think about is the danger they pose."

"It is fine," Dusty said. "I am no longer a dungeon Pokémon. Your words do not offend me."

Weiss, still looking slightly guilty, walked over to the mouse Pokémon and glanced at the quivering Pokémon. "So what do we do with...it?" she asked, gesturing to the Snorunt.

Hearing a new voice from right next to it, the little ice type glanced up from its cowering position and saw the red Absol. Surprisingly, the ice type did not cower, instead it leapt to its feet and ran towards Weiss. Unprepared for the ice types sudden brazen action, Weiss squeaked in shock as the Snorunt grabbed onto her foreleg and began nuzzling into it like a security blanket.

"GAH! What's it doing?!" Weiss yelped, trying to shake the ice type of her leg, but the little Pokémon held firm.

"I think it's hugging you," Quill said, struggling not to laugh at the comedic scene.

"Well why is it doing that?!" Weiss yelled, still struggling to get the ice type off of her leg.

"I think it's your fur," Furno said contemplatively.

"Huh?"

"Your fur," Furno repeated. "It's white like snow. It must think you're an ice type."

"I'm not an ice type!" Weiss growled, glaring heatedly at the Snorunt. The little Pokémon saw the glare and squeaked, but did not relinquish its hold. Instead, it just buried its face into her fur.

"Weiss, it's just a baby," Furno scolded, seeing the Absol glare at the small ice type. "Don't glare at it!"

"Then what do _you_ suppose we do with it?" Weiss sneered, though she did cease her attempts to dislodge the snow hat Pokémon.

"Well..." Furno trailed off, closing his eyes in thought. "We could take it with us."

"What?!" Weiss exclaimed. "You want to take it _with_ us?!"

"That doesn't seem like a bad idea," Zero commented, crouching in front of the Snorunt. "I mean, we did it with Dusty, why not with this little guy?"

The ice type glanced at Zero and promptly burst into tears and buried its face into Weiss's flank. Zero blanched at the reaction before chuckling sheepishly, "I guess they're scared of me for attacking them."

"Clearly," Quill commented dryly.

"Can we step back to the point where you want to take this child to the resistance with us?!" Weiss exclaimed. "Not to mention that we hardly have the money to pay for-" she quickly scrutinized the Snorunt, "-his rehabilitation."

"We'll get plenty of poké from this mission to cover his expenses," Quill countered.

"But...But," Weiss spluttered, looking from the Snorunt to her team.

"Aw, come on, Weiss. Look at him," Quill gushed. "He's adorable."

"And most likely imprinted on you," Dusty added.

Weiss opened and closed her mouth like a Magikarp, unable to form words. She glanced down at the little Pokémon just as it glanced up at her, the Snorunt's tearful eyes breaking the Blood Absol's heart. "Fine," she grumbled, looking away from the ice type, hiding her blush.

Seemingly understanding what was going on around him, the Snorunt chirped happily, bouncing on its feet and nuzzling his face into Weiss' side with new vigor. Weiss sighed resignedly, the barest hint of fondness flickering in her teal gaze.

"Well, now that that's settled," Zero said suddenly, breaking the silence, "let's-"

"GLA!"

A loud roar tore through the room, causing the inhabitants to jump in fright. Whipping around, the team saw a large ball with twin black horns float into the room. The new arrival was primarily white in color with black craters decorating its form. Its mouth was twisted into a permanent scowl and its arctic blue eyes burned with anger.

"Glalie!" Weiss shouted. "Snorunt's evolved form!"

"Do you think it's here for the Snorunt?" Zero asked tensely.

"GLA!" the Glalie roared, shaking the entire room.

The aforementioned Snorunt yelped in fear and buried his face into Weiss' flank.

"I take that as a no," Quill quipped.

"Well, hurry up and deal with it!" Weiss shouted, gesturing towards the larger ice type. When the team gave her blank glances, she scowled deeply. "What? I can't fight it. I'm with child!"

The five other members of Team Dawn Breaker glanced at each other. Sighing resignedly, they prepared to fight.

-Resistance-

 **Frigid Cavern B5**

After dealing with the Glalie, Team Dawn Breaker once more pressed on. They encountered several more Snorunt and another Glalie, but they were completely defeated by Zero, Furno, and Quill, their type advantages proving effective. As they continued on, they all noted that the air grew progressively colder.

A freezing wind blew through the hallways, and rooms, causing the young team to pause on occasion and wrap their scarves tighter around themselves. The Snorunt, which still had no name, was understandably less affected by the weather than the rest of them. It still kept itself firmly planted next to Weiss' side, but it seemed to dance happily every time a gust of wind blew past them.

Even with the bitter cold, Team Dawn Breaker pressed on. They quickly swept through the first four floors with relative ease, but the fifth floor brought with it something unexpected.

"Snow?" Zero questioned, watching a flurry of frozen rain lazily fell to the already covered floor.

"How is this possible?" Furno asked. "We're in a cave!"

"That's a mystery dungeon for you," Quill replied. "Even in a cave, weather can occur."

"And unlike normal weather, dungeon weather can be a lot crueler than the outside world," Weiss added.

With that grim note, the team continued on. Unfortunately, the snow impeded the team's vision, especially in the hallways. With the snow and dark fog, visibility was at an all time low, forcing the team to have to squint to even see their hands/paws in front of their faces. Even worse, it appeared that the dungeon's inhabitants had no such weaknesses.

They team had only been walking for ten minutes when they were blindsided. Zero, who had been leading the group, had been struck first. He had been walking, struggling to see in front of him when the faint sound of footsteps reached his ears. Before he could react, a glancing pain exploded against his chest.

Crying out in pain, Zero fell to a knee, clutching his chest, wincing at the burning sensation that now enveloped his chest.

"Zero!" Furno cried out, just barely seeing his friend fall. He moved to assist the former human when the same glancing pain erupt from his side, causing him to cry out.

"What's going on?!" Quill shouted before he too felt the stinging pain that his friends had been feeling.

In a matter of seconds, the team was assaulted with a flurry of slashes from all sides. The team closed rank around each other to limit the damage they were receiving, but their attacker was persistent. They kept attacking with vicious ferocity, an occasional devious snicker echoing through the dark hallway as they attacked.

"We need to move!" Weiss shouted, maneuvering her body in such a way that she was protecting the cowering Snorunt.

"We can't!" Quill shouted back, raising his arms in a meager form of defense.

Zero growled in frustration as he was hit yet again. He could very faintly hear the sound of crunching snow underneath fleeting footfalls, but it was gone in a second. "Furno! We need some light!" he shouted.

Nodding in understanding, Furno released a large burst of fire toward the last place he had heard their attacker. The flames roared through the dark hallway, lighting up the darkness before the dark fog swallowed it. However, in that brief moment, their attacker, or attacker _s_ , were visible.

There were two Pokémon standing before them, crouched and grinning wickedly. They were both bipedal weasels with navy blue fur, sharp claws, and what appeared to be pink feathers, one over their left ears and three behind them serving as tails. On their foreheads and chests rested yellow gems.

The two Pokémon snickered evilly, once more disappearing into the darkness when the flamethrower faded.

"Sneasel," Furno growled, recognizing the Pokémon. "They're Pokémon that like to attack Pokémon when they least expect it, blindsiding them and making off with their goods or killing their target before they even realize what happened."

"You sound informed," Quill noted, eyes wandering around the corridor for any sign of the two Sneasel.

"There was a Sneasel that lived in Briarwood Village that I had the misfortune of knowing," Furno grumbled, but gave no further detail.

"Any idea of how to go about fighting these Sneasel then?" Zero asked, wincing as he felt the claws of one of the Sneasel slashed across his arm.

"Unfortunately no," Furno said. "Sneasel have the uncanny ability to see in almost total darkness, giving them the advantage in this situation as we can't even see them. That and they're incredibly fast."

"And in snow, they're even faster with all this snow," Weiss growled.

"Wha?" Quill asked dumbly.

"In mystery dungeons, the snow effect causes ice type Pokémon's speed to double," Dusty recited, curling up slightly so the blows glanced over his dense hide.

"Perfect," Zero grumbled, becoming increasingly annoyed as he was hit yet again. "We need to get out into the open. We can't properly defend ourselves in this hallway."

"We can't exactly move, Zero," Weiss reminded.

Zero knew that Weiss was right, but he also knew that they had to get out of the dark hallway if they wanted even a chance to beat their attackers. In the spur of the moment, Zero remembered the times where he and Furno were practicing their combo and he got a crazy idea.

The Riolu quickly summoned the vibrant blue winds of his vacuum wave, but, instead of letting the winds run rampant, he kept the winds close to him, only allowing the winds to expand a few inches away from him. He forced the winds to stay compressed instead of allowing them free rein. The winds protested violently, causing the thin dome of wind to bubble and flare out wildly. When he could no longer hold the winds Zero shouted, "Everybody get down!" and released the winds.

The group instantly flattened themselves to the floor, Weiss pulling the Snorunt down with her, just in time for the winds from Zero's attack to pass over them. Instead of the singular blade of wind that vacuum wave normally released was now a large expanding ring of wind that tore through the hallway, expanding to the point where the winds slammed against the encompassing walls. Distantly, Zero could here twin cries of pain coming from the groups left.

"Come on!" Zero shouted, hurrying the group back to their feet. He knew that while his attack was very effective, it was not enough to fell the two Sneasel. They had to run before the Sneasel recovered.

The team rushed down the hallway in the opposite direction in which the Sneasel's cries of pain. They raced down the hallway, sometimes slamming into walls as the corridors turned abruptly. The entire time the team could hear the pursuing footsteps of the Sneasel. Bringing up the rear, Bella would send a dark pulse of shadow ball behind them in order to create separation between the Sneasel and Team Dawn Breaker.

The team finally made it to the next room after several minutes of blindly running through the twisting maze, bursting into the middle of the room and spinning back towards the way they came. After a few tense second, the two Sneasel stepped out of the shadows and into the light.

Now that the two Pokémon were fully visible, the team could see that the feather on the Sneasel on the right's ear was about half the size of the other, indicating that it was female. The two Sneasel stepped forward trepidaciously, their eyes darting wildly around at the terrain. They stopped just as the cusp of where the room met the hallway and just stood their, glaring murderously at Team Dawn Breaker.

"Why are they just standing their?" Zero asked.

"They lost their advantage," Furno answered. "They are debating whether or not it's worth attacking us."

The team and twin Sneasel's stared at the other intently, both seemingly waiting for the other to make the first move. The cold wind blew a bit heavier as tensions mounted between both sides. After several tense seconds, the two Sneasel slowly began to back away, their gazes never leaving the team. Before long, the two were completely shrouded by the dark fog and disappeared from sight.

After a few seconds of waiting for any movement or indication that the Sneasel were still there, the team released a sigh of relief. "Thank Arceus," Quill said.

"Thankfully Sneasel are more speedy than they are strong or that could have been a lot worse," Furno said.

"Even so, we can't afford to be caught off guard like that again," Weiss said, stealthily leaning against the Snorunt in order to calm him. "Do we have any luminous orbs?"

"No, they've been out of those for the past two weeks," Quill commented. "Kecleon said that he'd reserve some for me next time he got some in stock, but he'd charge me double."

"Great," Weiss grumbled.

"No use complaining about it now," Zero said. "We just need to be more careful from here on-"

 ***Click***

Zero had only taken one step forward when he felt something give way under his foot. He felt a sudden tug on the back of his neck like someone had grabbed. Before he could comprehend what was happening, he was assaulted by the sudden sensation of being pulled through a tight tube. The sensation only lasted a second before he was suddenly dropped to the floor, his visions swimming.

"Ugh. What the heck was that?," Zero slurred, struggling to regain his bearings.

"MARIL!" a shrill voice shouted.

It was pure instinct that saved Zero. He rolled to the side just as a large blast of water smashed into the ground right next to him sending frozen clumps of dirt flying. Zero quickly pushed aside his unsteadiness and got to his feet, only to gape when he saw what was around him.

Zero found himself standing in a small room close to the wall. On the opposite side of the room was a single hallway and separating Zero from it, was a large group of dungeon Pokémon. There were several Snorunt, each much larger than the little ice type that was following Weiss around like a lost Ducklett, along with several blue round mouse Pokémon that Zero recognized as Maril. Towards the back of the group was a Sneasel and three masses of brown fur with pig noses known as Swinub.

Seeing all of the wild Pokeman staring him down, Zero took an involuntary step back. He was completely surrounded, cut off from his escape route. He cautiously eyed the glaring group of dungeon Pokémon, debating his options.

 _This isn't good,_ Zero thought. _I can't fight all of these Pokémon alone. I need to get back to the others..._

The Riolu was forcibly pulled from his thoughts when one of the Maril suddenly lunged forward and spun towards him with rollout. Zero immediately jumped to the side, causing the water-fairy type to slam into the wall, and made a mad dash towards to the hallway. Unfortunately, a series of mud slaps forced him to divert his path and jump back.

Immediately, the Sneasel lunged towards him, its increased speed catching Zero off guard. He hissed in pain as the Sneasel's claws raked across his chest. He raise his arm just in time to block another scratch attack before slamming his free paw into the dark-ice type's chest with a force palm. The quad effective attack caused the wild Pokémon to shriek in pain and go flying into one of the Snorunt.

Zero made another run at the hallway, but once again, he was impeded, this time by a harsh icy wind from one of the other Snorunt. The surprisingly powerful wind knocked him off his feet and sent him tumbling into the wall behind him. With a sharp crack, Zero's head made contact with the wall, causing his vision to become fuzzy. He faintly heard a shrill cry of a Maril before everything became significantly darker.

Shaking his head, Zero opened his eyes and saw two of the Maril doing a strange dance, a blue outline surrounding their forms. Above them a swirling mass of dark clouds began to for, covering the ceiling of the room and branching out into the hallway. Immediately, the snow stopped and a harsh rain took its place.

Zero yelped the second as the incredibly cold water splashed against his fur, sending a shiver down his spine. He was soon completely soaked through with incredibly cold water, his scarf doing little to nothing to hinder the encroaching cold. He feebly attempted to rub some warmth into his arms, but that just pushed the cold water through his fur and onto his actual skin.

"Swi!" One of the Swinub shuffled towards Zero and released a harsh flurry of snow from its mouth that the Riolu.

Zero, pushing past the chill, just barely managed to move to the side to avoid the the attack and got to his feet. He quickly brought up the winds of his vacuum wave and released a large blade of wind at the Swinub, sending it flying away with an explosion. Unfortunately, another Swinub took its place shortly after. Still trying to work passed the harsh cold that was encompassing him, Zero was unprepared for the icy blue ball of energy that the Swinub sent at him. The attack slammed into Zero's leg freezing it in place.

Zero struggled frantically to pull his leg free, but the other Pokémon refused to give him the chance. The Maril all sent a virtual wall of bubbles at the trapped fighting type that exploded on contact, dousing Zero with even more water. At the same time, the Snorunt and Swinub attacked with icy wind and powder snow respectively.

The conjoined ice attacks slammed into Zero, causing him to cry out in pain as the sharp sting of cold intensified. The dungeon Pokémon kept up their attacks, eliciting more screams of pain from the former human. Zero tried to bring his paws up to at the very least protect his face, but he found he could not move them. Looking down, Zero gaped in horror as he saw ice beginning to creep over his paws, gluing them to the ground. The water from the bubbles and rain, combined with the ice type attacks, had began to freeze over him, beginning to encompass his entire body.

Zero struggled furiously to free himself from the ice, but the continued attacks and rain just made the ice thicker and thicker. He tried to summon his inner energy to pull off a move to break himself free, but he found that the ice seemed to be leaching his strength. He could feel even his physical strength begin to leave him. His eyes began to grow heavy as the cold became an almost pleasant numbness over his body.

By that point, the only thing that was not sealed in ice was his head, allowing him to see the Sneasel, now recovered from Zero's attack, walk forward and grin evilly. It brought its claws together, forming a large ice shard in its claws. With a vindictive grin, the sharp claw Pokémon threw the glowing ball of ice and everything went black, the last sensation Zero feeling being the all encompassing cold.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Wrath of Ice

When Zero awoke everything was bathed in an inky black. He could not see anything no matter how hard he tried, it was just too dark. He was also cold. Incredibly so. He wanted desperately to curl into himself and rub his arms, to at least attempt to spur some heat into his body, but he found that he could not move. The numbness seemingly paralyzing his body.

The Riolu struggled desperately to move some part of him, but his body did not respond. Or if it did, Zero could not feel it. He could not even shiver, his body was so numb. He could only lay there and be cold.

 _What...is this?_ Zero thought to himself. _What..is this...cold? Where am I...?_

A cold spike shot through the Riolu like a lance, making Zero wish he could shiver. He tried to think back to how he ended up in this situation, but he could not focus. The cold took over his thoughts, making it impossible to concentrate on anything else.

Just as Zero was beginning to think that he would be stuck in this perpetual cold a flicker of warmth began to envelop him. It started in his chest and slowly began to run along his limbs, from his paws to his toes. The numbness that had enveloped the Riolu began to fade to a dull throb as warm began to rush through his body. Feeling returned to his body, allowing the former human to begin to move his fingers and legs, if only slightly. He tried to move his arms, but it felt like something was physically holding them in place, though the warmth seemed to be lessening whatever it was.

Zero hummed in contentment as the warmth continued to spread over his body in a soothing manner. However, his contentment gradually diminished as the warmth grew in intensity, becoming more of a heat than a soothing warmth. He shifted uncomfortably as the heat just continued to grow and grow until it felt like it was biting fervently at his skin.

Zero continued to squirm in discomfort as his body felt as if he were on fire. Finally, he could not take it anymore.

"GAH!" Zero shouted in pain. His eyes snapped open and was met with the red and orange color of flames. Without even thinking, he leapt to his feet, ignoring the unsteadiness in his still slightly numb legs, and jumped to the side, coincidentally landing in a slushy pile of snow. He hit the slush with a splash and a hiss as steam rose out from under him. Zero closed his eyes with a contented sigh as the slush soothed the burning that he had been experiencing.

"I told you to tone it back!" a haughty voice shouted from of to Zero's left.

"Sorry!" another voice apologized sheepishly, a little ways away.

Zero heard the soft steps of someone walking over to him, but he kept his eyes close. "Zero?" That was the second voice. It sounded familiar to Zero, but everything was fuzzy at the moment.

A tentative hand reached out and touched the Riolu's shoulder and shook it lightly. "Zero?" the voice said again. "Are you okay."

Groaning, the former human opened his eyes at the one touching him. Slowly, as if a veil were being lifted off from over his eyes, color bled into Zero's vision and a familiar Chimchar appeared inches away from the Riolu's face. "Furno?"

"Oh, thank Arceus!" Furno exclaimed in relief before glomping the Riolu in a bone breaking hug.

"Urk!" Zero winced. "A little tight, Furno."

"Oh! Sorry!" Furno said sheepishly, backing away. No sooner had Furno done so, Bella slammed into the Riolu and enveloped him in one of her own hugs.

Long since used to this kind of treatment, Zero just sighed and awkwardly patted the ghost type on the back. "What happened?" he asked, worming his head out of the ghost type's grasp and looking at his team, all of whom were flickering between relief and worry.

"You don't remember?" Quill asked. "You stepped on a teleport trap and were dropped into a monster house."

"Monster house?"

"They are strange anomalies in a dungeon that attract hordes of dungeon Pokémon to them for whatever reason," Weiss recited. "You were teleported into the middle of one."

"When we found you, you were frozen in a block of ice," Furno added, his expression marred with worry. "We thought that you..."

Zero nodded, getting the picture. He then frowned as what Weiss said truly registered. "Did you all beat all those Pokémon?"

"Kind of," Quill said, gesturing to behind them.

Looking out past the group Zero saw the Pokémon that had attacked him, seemingly all poised to attack. Zero tensed at the sight, but frowned when none of them moved. They appeared to be frozen in place by some unknown power, their eyes being the only thing spared from this affect.

"What's wrong with them?" Zero found himself asking.

"Foe-hold orb," Quill answered happily, holding up a dull orb. "They petrify all dungeon Pokémon on a floor for a short period of time."

"How'd you guys know to use it?" Zero asked.

"Well we didn't at first," Quill said. "We thought you just got teleported to a random room, but then the rain started."

"We feared the worse so we activated the orb," Furno added. "We didn't find you until..."

"You were already encased in ice," Dusty finished, stepping forward with an oblong yellow berry with light blue rings scattered around it. "Eat this," he said, offering Zero the berry. "We may have melted the ice, but this aspear berry will eliminate the numbness."

Zero gratefully took the fruit and ate it, grimacing at the sour taste that the fruit held. Immediately he felt better. The lingering numbness that had dissipated, leaving the Riolu feeling refreshed and energetic.

"How did you guys melt the ice anyway?" Zero asked curiously.

At this, the group shifted uneasily. Bella let go of the Riolu and floated away, not willing to meet the former human's gaze. Zero narrowed his eyes at their reactions. He glanced around and noticed a large burn mark on the frozen ground and everything clicked.

"You set me on fire, didn't you." It wasn't a question.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Quill chuckled nervously.

Zero just sighed and shook his head. "Whatever. You saved my life so I guess it was worth it."

"Well yes, it was worth it, but this should be a sign that we should abandon this mission," Weiss said.

"Oh come on. We can't just give up now. We're so close!" Quill groaned.

"And our leader almost died!" Weiss shot back.

"But he didn't."

"That's not the point!"

"Guys!" Zero interrupted, breaking up the argument. "While I agree that this mission is dangerous, more so than I originally thought, but we can't leave yet."

"What?!" Weiss exclaimed incredulously, shocked that Zero would be agreeing with Quill. "After what just happened to you?!"

"It's because of what happened to me that we have to keep going," Zero responded. Seeing Weiss' confused expression, Zero elaborated, "If I was able to be taken out like that, imagine what would happen to a civilian."

Weiss opened her mouth to refute Zero's statement, but soon closed it. She frowned, struggling to come up with a valid argument, but could not come up with anything. She eventually sighed resignedly. "Fine."

Zero smiled reassuringly at the shiny Absol, grateful that the Absol would go along with them. Nodding to the group, and reassuring that he was indeed okay, Zero got up and lead the team on, mindful of the petrified dungeon Pokémon.

-Resistance-

 **Frigid Cavern B7**

After traversing through two more floors, the entire environment changed. What was once a simple cave had turned to a cavern of ice. The floors, walls, and ceiling were all covered by a thick layer of clear ice. Thankfully, the ice was not very slippery so the team could walk across the ice as if it were normal ground.

"Whoa," Quill gaped in amazement, mesmerized by the ice. "This entire place is made up of ice."

"Quill! Watch out!" Furno shouted at the inattentive Quilladin.

Quill spun around just as a Swinub barreled into him with a take down attack. The grass-fighting type coughed in pain, flying across the room and into a wall. The Swinub snorted and made to attack the Quilladin once more, but was stopped when Furno smashed into it with a flame wheel.

"Quill, are you okay?" Furno asked as the Swinub lost consciousness.

"Ugh, yeah. I'm..." Quill slowly raised his head, inadvertently looking at the wall. As he did so, Quill could just make out a blurry shape of something under the layers of ice. Squinting, the shape came into focus for the Quilladin and as it did, the spiny armor Pokémon's mouth opened wide in horror. "GAH!"

"Quill, what's wrong?!" Zero shouted, he and the rest of the team rushing to their friend's side.

"Th-The wall!" Quill stuttered, pointing at the wall of ice.

The team looked to where Quill was pointing and gasped at what they saw. In the wall, a few inches in the ice, was a Pokémon. A Granbull to be exact, their face frozen in a wide mouthed expression of surprise and fear.

"Arceus!" Furno shouted, covering his mouth in shock.

"We need to get them out!" Zero said.

"R-Right," Furno agreed. He inhaled deeply and prepared to release a blast of flames when Weiss stopped him.

"No, wait!" she exclaimed, stepping in front of the Chimchar.

Furno stopped himself as to not hit Weiss with his attack and coughed violently as smoke poured from his mouth. "Why?" he coughed out.

"Because, look at the ice," she said, gesturing to the wall. "It's more than six inches thick to the Granbull. It would have had t take months if not years to accumulate that much ice." She looked sadly at the trapped Granbull. "It's far too late for them."

"B-But..." Furno tried to argue, but he could not think of anything to say.

"Unfreezing them would just be a waste of time," Dusty said bluntly. "We would just have a body."

"But we could at least bury them," Quill refuted. "It just seems wrong to leave them like that."

"Would you do the same for the others?" Dusty questioned.

"What others?" Quill questioned. Dusty just pointed to the other walls that lined the room. Looking at them, the group could see the horrible visages of multiple frozen Pokémon, each embedded in several inches of ice.

"Oh, Arceus," Furno whispered, feeling sick to his stomach. "All those Pokémon."

"That could have been me," Zero muttered, the horrible realization that he very well could have met the same fate several floors below.

"They're part of the dungeon now," Weiss said solemnly. "Now you see why I didn't want to come here? This place is much to dangerous."

For once, Quill had nothing to say. He just stared in disgust and horror at the visage of multiple frozen Pokémon, forever trapped within the walls of the dungeon.

"It's a terrible sight to behold," a voice rang out. "All these Pokémon fell victim to this dungeon and are now a permanent part of it."

The group whirled around and came face to face with a strange looking Pokémon floating towards them. The Pokémon was primarily brown in color with an overly large head with indentations on the side and black, symmetrical lines on its forehead. Under the rim of its head were two green eyes. It had a lighter brown 'collar' with four dots of the same color on its chest. It had three digits on each hand; one red, one green, and one yellow. There was a rim under its body, partially covering its stubby legs.

"Who are you?" Zero demanded, tensing.

"My name is Newton and I am a Beheeyem," the Pokémon introduced himself cordially, giving a small bow. "I assume you are here in regards to my missive?"

"Missive?" Zero asked. "You mean _you_ sent the request?"

"Indeed," Newton confirmed. "I originally came to this dungeon to investigate the rumors of a treasure being located on the final floor of this dungeon, but I greatly underestimated the difficulty."

The psychic type floated away a little, seemingly staring at one of the trapped Pokémon. "When I came to this floor, I was mortified to see so many Pokémon frozen within these walls. I, unfortunately, did not bring an escape orb and I have been stuck on this floor for the past week, hiding from the wild Pokémon that were on this floor."

"You've been here for a week?" Weiss questioned almost skeptically. "How are you still sane after all this time?"

"I admit, it has been trying," Newton conceded. "These past few days I have felt my mind slowly begin to slip, giving way to more...feral impulses. I can only thank Arceus that someone sent out a missive to assist me."

"Yes, lucky," Weiss muttered before perking up. "Well, now that we've found you, we can all leave this dungeon."

"Yes, we can. However..." Newton trailed off.

"'However' what?" Zero questioned.

"There are still rumors regarding the treasure," the Beheeyem replied cryptically. "If my sources are correct, then there are only seven more floors to this dungeon..."

"Oh no! Hell no!" Weiss immediately refuted, startling the Snorunt who was huddled against her flank. "We've had way too many close calls already. We're just putting ourselves at even more risk for something that probably doesn't even exist!"

"If we find any treasure, I'd be more than willing to give you all a portion of it," Newton tried.

"The answer is still-"

"H-Hold up, Weiss," Quill said, quickly shushing the Absol. "Let's just think about this for a second. We have a chance of getting _treasure_. It could be gold, poké, jewels, who knows?!"

"It could also be nothing," Weiss countered.

"But it could be _something_ ," Quill argued. He turned to the rest of the team. "Help me out guys!"

"We could stand to get some extra money," Furno reasoned.

"Furno! You can't seriously be considering this!" Weiss shouted.

"Well, like you said, we're basically broke and with another Pokémon that we'll have to leave at the daycare, we'll need all the poké we can get," Furno pointed out.

"...That is a good point," Weiss conceded.

"Plus, who knows what else we could find," Quill enticed. "Maybe some more items and gear..."

"This is risky," Zero said, still on the fence about the plan.

"If you fear for the difficulty of our opponents, then I would be more than willing to assist in any combat situations," Newton offered. "I may not look it, but I am fairly capable in a fight. I also have a collection of my own orbs, including a roll call orb should we get separated."

"See, that awesome!" Quill exclaimed. "Now we don't have to worry about teleport traps."

Zero crossed his arms and frowned. "Well...alright," Zero said. "If it is only seven more floors..."

"Great!" Quill said, not even waiting for Zero to finish his sentence. He quickly grabbed the Beheeyem's arm and began pulling him along.

"I guess we're going," Zero sighed. "When did I lose control of the team?"

"The same moment you let that idiot join," Weiss responded, reluctantly following the energetic Quilladin, the Snorunt right behind her.

Zero just sighed and followed as well, ignoring Furno and Bella's snickers.

-Resistance-

 **Frigid Cavern B14**

The next seven floors were more of the same for the team and client. The frozen walls of the dungeon continued to disturb the young team as they constantly saw dozens of Pokémon of all types imprisoned in ice. For the team, seeing the sheer amount of death that was present in the dungeon was almost crippling for the young team. Even Quill was subdued throughout the rest of the journey.

Newton attempted to alleviate the somber air by pointing out that the frozen Pokémon were, essentially, part of the dungeon itself. As such, their seemingly numerous numbers were most likely a result of the dungeon's constant shifting and changing of dimensions. In reality, there were probably only a handful of actual bodies in the walls. Unfortunately, this did very little to soothe the team and the Beheeyem went silent.

The Pokémon on the next half of the dungeon were not much stronger than the ones on the previous floors, but there were a significantly higher amount of traps. They ran into sleep traps, pitfalls, toxic spikes (those were debatably the worse), even traps that made it impossible to use a move unless they consumed an elixir. It eventually got to the point where Newton pulled out a trap-bust orb to give the team an actual chance to regroup and recover.

However, despite the difficulty, the group made it to the final floor.

The group of eight appeared in a singular room of ice. It was set up like the floors on the previous, though much more spacious, with ice covering every inch of the chamber. The air seemed significantly colder and a wind was blowing at the from some unknown source. Thankfully, there appeared to be no bodies in the walls.

"It looks like this is the end," Weiss said looking around at the frozen landscape.

"But there's no treasure," Quill whined.

"It was all speculations," Newton commented calmly, though there was a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"That's a shame," Furno huffed disappointingly. A few seconds later, the Chimchar began chuckling.

"What?" Zero questioned, slightly worried that his friend was laughing for no apparent reason.

"It's just, when Newton mentioned the treasure, it felt like we were on a real exploration," Furno answered. "Like back in the old days when the Exploration Federation and exploration guilds still existed."

"Huh, it was kind of like that," Quill said, smiling slightly.

"All my life I've dreamed of going on explorations and joining a guild," Furno confessed. "Going on adventures, discovering new lands, finding treasure, all of it was just so exciting for me." A frown stole across his face. "But all those things died out thanks to the emperor."

"Yes, the emperor has done many a terrible thing, but the destruction of the Federation was probably the most devastating blow to our world," Newton said sagely. "However, I do not believe that this little excursion is over."

"How do you mean?" Dusty asked curiously.

"I don't expect that you can feel it, but, as a psychic type, I am sensitive to the energies of a dungeon and I have sensed a wave of energy just wash over the room," Newton said.

"Do you know what that means?" Zero asked, glancing around the room cautiously.

"Well I have only encountered such a burst of energy once," Newton said, trailing off slightly as he recalled the incident. "Just before all my orbs were deactivated."

At that, everyone tensed. They all circled up, the Snorunt hiding behind Weiss, and watched cautiously for any movement. They did not have to wait long as a bright light shone on the other side of the room, momentarily blinding the team and client. When the light died down there was a large and somewhat familiar looking Pokémon.

The Pokémon looked to be made entirely out of ice. It was golem-like in shape, with two arms and three fingers and two sharp conical legs that did not touch the ground. Four spikes of ice protruded from its back and seven yellow dots, arranged in a cross shape, glinted on its 'face'. A biting cold emanated from the Pokémon, adding to the cold of the room.

"Th-That's a Regice!" Weiss gulped.

"I'm getting a serious case of déjà vu here," Quill muttered. He then turned to Newton with a serious expression on his face. "You're not planning on attacking us and stealing our escape orb, are you?"

"Heavens no," Newton responded, sounding affronted and the mere implication. "I urged you all to continue despite you're misgivings. I would be remiss if I did not assist you in this battle."

"M-Maybe it won't attack," Weiss spluttered, beginning to sweat despite the cold. "I-I mean it has no reason to, right? It could just-"

A loud robotic screech interrupted whatever the Absol was going to say. The ice titan raised its arms in front of its face, an orb a blue energy forming in between its hands. With a shrill cry, the titan thrust its hands out, sending out a bolt of frozen energy at the group.

Weiss yelped in shock at the sudden attack, making no move to dodge. Just before the ice beam could hit, Furno jumped into action. Inhaling deeply, he unleashed a large blast of fire at the beam, meeting it half way. The two attacks battled for dominance, a testament to Regice's power seeing that the ice type move was able counter a powerful flamethrower, before both attacks exploded, causing a cloud of mist to blanket the room.

"I think it want's to attack us, Weiss,"Quill commented, earning a glare.

"Thank you Captain Obvious," she growled. "What do we do now?"

"Our orbs will be useless until Regice is defeated," Newton said, eyeing the mist warily. "We will need to defeat it if we hope to leave."

"WHAT?!" Weiss screeched. "You want us to fight that thing?! Need I remind you that that thing is a _legendary_?!"

"Well we already beat its cousin, Regirock," Quill said. "This won't be any different."

"Except I won't be using final gambit this time," Zero commented.

"Final gambit?" Weiss asked before the mist fully dissipated and screeched loudly. "We'll talk about this later."

"Chin up, Weiss," Quill chirped excitedly. "This will be a great experience."

"Yeah, if we survive," Weiss scoffed. She lowered her head so that she could whisper to the Snorunt at her side. "I need you to stay back, okay?"

The little Pokémon gazed up at the shiny Absol with wide blue eyes. Weiss smiled reassuringly, though it was tight with worry over the impending battle. Thankfully, the little ice type appeared not to notice and nodded its head and scurried away to hide.

With the Snorunt out of harms way, Weiss looked back at the Regice and swallowed thickly. She was scared, incredibly so. Regice was a legendary after all. She visibly shook under the implication of fighting a legendary, but she had no other choice.

A paw touched her back, causing Weiss to jump and whirl around, meeting Zero's reassuring gaze. "Don't worry," he said. "We can do this if we fight smart and fight strong."

Weiss closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. When she had calmed down, she opened her eyes and nodded determinedly at the Riolu. "Let's do this."

Zero smiled in response and turned back to the Regice that was now making its way towards the group. "Attack from all sides!" Zero shouted. "Keep moving and don't make yourself a target!"

The entirety of Team Dawn Breaker, plus Newton, nodded in response and charged.

The legendary raised both its arms, eyes flashing in a random pattern, and released a large breath of icy wind at the group. With the winds racing towards them, all of the group, except for Furno, jumped to the side to avoid it. Furno, on the other hand, merely rolled forward with a flame wheel and charged straight into the winds.

The flames of Furno's attack burned through the snow and sleet of the attack. The winds slowed him down slightly, but he built up too much momentum to be stopped. Furno barreled into the golem with a loud crash, flames erupting across its body, but the Regice was hardly pushed back. In response the golem raised an arm, a bright glow coming over it, and slammed it into the still spinning Furno, sending the wheel of fire rocketing across the room. Furno slammed into the opposite wall. His flames dispersed, but he was only slightly dazed.

The ice legendary made to go after the chimp Pokémon, but was halted by Zero suddenly appearing in front of it. Before the ice type could more, Zero had pressed a paw against its frozen body. A burst of energy erupted from Zero's paw, blasting the golem back a few feat. Before Regice could full recover, a series of glowing green missiles, purple needles, and several green orbs shot through the air and exploded against the legendary's back, courtesy of Quill, Dusty, and Newton respectively.

However, much to the groups shock, the Regice seemed hardly fazed by the three attacks. The legendary's eyes flashed rapidly and seemed to glare at the young Riolu. Before Zero could react, the Regice had released a blast of crackling electricity at him.

The bolt of lightning struck the former human in the center of his chest and sent him flying back with a cry of pain. The Regice floated towards the downed Riolu with malicious intent, but a sudden appearance of a purple portal, and the Banette that flew out of it, stopped it. Bella slammed into the Regice with a strong phantom force before following up with a sucker punch when the Regice made to attack.

The Regice stumbled back, a strange action for one with the ability to float, and was unprepared for Weiss' sudden attack. Weiss, who had been standing off to the side, attempting to psyche herself up for what she was about to do, had dashed forward the second she had an opening. Her horn took on a dark red glow as she swung her head, her blade-like horn glancing across the Regice's unprotected back.

The legendary screeched in pain as a small nick appeared on its icy hide. It then spun around and batted Weiss away with a vicious hammer arm. Weiss cried out in pain as she was sent skidding across the icy floor. Regice shook its arms violently and began to summon another charge beam when Quill slammed into its side with a rollout.

For the first time, the Regice fell to the ground, its large and heavy body cracking the ice covered floor from the impact. Quill, still rolling, wheeled around and dashed towards the downed legendary as it was attempting to get up. Quill rammed into the prone legendary, pushing it back to the ground before turning back around to attack it again.

Just as Quill was about to hit it, Regice managed to lift one of its arms and shoot a beam at the ground in front of the spinning boulder that was Quill, forming an impromptu speed bump. Unable to stop, Quill slammed into the protrusion and bounced into the air, unfurling and slamming into the ground right before the Regice.

Quill groaned, rubbing his head. A sudden chill in the air caused the Quilladin to freeze before slowly looking up at the towering Pokémon. "Uh...hi?" Quill said nervously.

Eyes flashing, the Regice lifted a leg and preceded to stomp on the Quilladin. Quill gasped as air and saliva was jettisoned from his mouth as pain ripped through him. Not giving the young grass-fighting type any time to recover, the Regice slammed its pointed foot down onto Quill and again and again.

Quill screamed in pain as he was smashed into the ice repeatedly to the point where the ice was beginning to crack and give out from under him. As the pain became too much, Quill was saved when Furno suddenly broke through the ice next to them and slammed into the Regice, forcing it off of the spiny armor Pokémon.

"Quill, are you okay?" Furno asked before releasing a flamethrower at the Regice, forcing it back even more.

"Yeah, nothing that a sitrus berry can't fix," Quill groaned, holding his back the best he could.

"Stay focused!" Zero shouted, ramming into the Regice with a quick attack and force palm combination. "Quill, stay back so you can heal."

"Understood," Quill groaned, taking the pack off of his back and rummaging around for a healing berry. However, Regice had other plans.

The large legendary drifted towards Quill and Furno, its arms glowing with fighting type energy. Newton, seeing this, lifted his arms, his digits flashed their respective color before a beam of multi-colored beam shot out of his hands and slammed into the Regice's back. The legendary in question spun around and beeped angrily.

Unperturbed, Newton's eyes glowed blue with psychic energy. The same blue color covered glow enveloped the Regice and lifted into the air against its will. The Regice struggled, its limbs flailing wildly as it was pulled closer to the Beheeyem. Newton struggled to keep the legendary suspended, but it was causing a strain. Eventually, the psychic type's energy waned and the Regice dropped to the floor.

Now back in control of its body, the Regice glared angrily at the Beheeyem before shooting a large ice beam at him. Newton yelped in surprise and tried to dodge, but the attack managed to hit him in the arm. Ice creeped up the cerebral Pokémon's arm, encasing it in ice and rendering it useless.

Clutching his now useless arm, Newton back away fearfully from the legendary but the Regice was relentless. The Regice released a high pitched whine before unleashing another charge beam at the Beheeyem, sending the psychic type reeling and tumbling to the ground.

Before the Regice could do more, Dusty rushed in and slammed into the Regice with a rollout of his own. The Sandshrew slammed into Regice with a great amount of force, so much so that he was able to keep moving forward while pushing the ice type back with him. Unfortunately, the Regice, once again, proved to be resilient.

In a flash, Regice had both of its hands gripping the Sandshrew who was still spinning. An icy spray drifted off of Regice's hands from how fast Dusty was spinning, but this did not deter the legendary. All of Regice's eyes flashed in unison as it released a powerful icy wind directly at the Sandshrew.

The harsh winds beat down on the Sandshrew as he valiantly continued to spin. However, due to his natural weakness to the cold, Dusty slowly began to slow until he had come to a halt, frost beginning to creep up his body. After several seconds of holding the Sandshrew in the brunt of its attack, Regice let go, allowing the Sandshrew to be blown back by the icy wind. When the winds finally died down, Dusty was left partially frozen on the ground, barely moving.

"Oh no you don't!" Zero shouted, seeing the legendary start to move towards Dusty. Blue winds surged up around the Riolu before a blade of wind shot out from it and headed for the ice type.

The violent blade of wind dispersed upon making contact, but it did do damage if the small crack appearing on the legendary's ice body. The large Pokémon turned, eyes flashing angrily, and shot a charge beam at Zero, who barely was able to dodge out of the way.

Two green vines shot from the side and wrapped around the ice type's arm as it tried to go after Zero. The Regice looked at its now trapped arm curiously before a shadowy portal opened up right below it. Bella burst forth, ramming into the Regice before disappearing again just as a razor wind attack exploded out of the closing portal.

Regice screeched as incredibly sharp buffeted its body, creating more nicks on its body. However, do to the severity of the attack, Quill's vines were not spared from the attack.

"Ow!" Quill hissed in pain, retracting his vines. "That hurt, Weiss."

"Sorry," the Absol called back, not sounding apologetic at all.

Quill opened his mouth to say something else when a loud screech came from the Regice. The legendary in question, now littered with dozens of nicks and cracks, was enraged. It brought its arms to its body, as if hugging itself, and began to glow a bright blue.

"What's it doing?" Quill questioned.

"I don't know, but don't let it finish!" Zero shouted, running towards the legendary.

The members of the team that were still in fighting condition rushed the towards the Regice to stop whatever it was attempting, but it was too late. When they got within several feat, the Regice whipped its arms out and unleashed in immense blast of wind, ice, and snow at the group.

Those caught up in the attack cried out in pain as the ice bit at their bodies and the winds slammed against them. They tried to fight against the wind, but, one by one, they were all thrown back, skidding across the ground as more and more ice began to form over them. When the blizzard finally ended, all of them were on the ground, various part of their bodies covered in ice. Even Furno, as a fire type, was not spared from the attack, frost and shards of ice formed around his chest and arms.

With its opposition incapacitated, the Regice floated over to them, much slower than it had been moving before. It stopped in front of Weiss, as she was the closest, and stared down at the squirming dark type. Weiss struggled to her feet, but fell back to the ground with a groan.

Regice seemed to regard the Absol for several seconds before raising an arm, a familiar white glow covering its arm. Weiss' eyes widened in fear as the Regice raised its arm to smash Absol with a single blow. The Regice, still staring at Weiss, raised its arm higher before bringing it down upon the disaster Pokémon. Or, it would have if something small and rather light had not impacted against Regice's back.

The ice type froze, its arm inches away from crushing the Absol. It turned around and stared down at the little Snorunt that had just tackled it. Weiss too saw the Snorunt and her eyes widened in shock and fear for the little ice type. The snow cap Pokémon was shivering violently, clearly terrified of the much larger Pokémon, but it refused to back down, its eyes burning with determination.

The energy encompassing the legendary's arm faded as the Regice's eyes flashed, as if it were blinking. A second later Regice swung its arms and batted the Snorunt aside with a swift blow. The poor Snorunt was sent flying across the room before it slammed against the wall and bounced off, landing harshly on the ground. It did not move.

Weiss stared in open-mouthed horror as she saw the little Pokémon get tossed into a wall like a rag doll. The adorable little Snorunt that followed her around like a lost Growlithe. As Weiss continued stared at the Snorunt's limp form she felt an all too familiar anger well up inside her. Her pupils contracted into pin points, her fur raised like an agitated Meowth's, her hackles were bared, and a low growl rumbled in her throat. The Regice turned to face her just as the enraged Absol leapt at it, her claws and teeth bared.

Regice cried out in shock and pain as Weiss' claws, coated in a dark red light, ripped across its front. It tried to back away, but Weiss kept coming at it. Her claws flashed rapidly as she continued to claw at the ice type in a vicious frenzy. No longer were the Absol's attacks precise and calculated. Now she attacked wildly and without any specific target. She did not care what she hit, she just wanted the legendary to suffer.

Regice managed to push Weiss away with a close range charge beam, but that did not stop her for long. When the ice titan attempted to use a hammer arm, she lunged forward and slammed into the titan with a brutal sucker punch. Before it could get away, Weiss blasted the Regice with another razor wind, this one holding more power than her previous one.

The winds slammed into the titan's already heavily damaged body, eliciting a pained screech from her victim. Weiss then opened her mouth and released a large dark pulse at the weakened Regice. The rings of dark energy smashed into the Regice with a loud explosion that sent the ice titan crashing to the ground.

Regice's eyes flashed weakly before going dim. Its body twitched slightly before going still, succumbing to its injuries.

Weiss stalked towards the downed titan, growling dangerously. Her claws and horn began to glow red, her glittered with malicious intent. She wanted to finished the Regice.

"Weiss, stop!" Zero shouted having recovered from Regice's earlier attack. When Weiss made no move to stop, Zero pushed himself to his feet and went after her. "Weiss! It's done! You can stop!"

When he got close enough to touch the Absol, she whirled around and attempted to claw at the Riolu. Zero, taken aback, leapt back and avoided the attack. "Weiss?"

The shiny Absol's eyes were filled with absolute fury as she snarled at Zero. Her hunches were taut and her fangs were glinting in the light. She snapped at Zero as she tried to get closer.

"Weiss, what's going on?" Zero said aloud.

With a roar, Weiss leapt at Zero, her claws outstretched. Acting on instinct, Zero summoned a whirlwind of blue wind around him. Weiss bounced of the wind shield, causing her to yelp and be sent crashing to the ground. Before she could get up, Zero pounced on her, pinning her to the ground with his superior strength.

"Weiss, snap out of it!" Zero shouted as he struggled to keep Weiss down. "The fight is over you can stop! Weiss!"

Zero's final shout seemed to jar the Absol out of whatever haze she was trapped in. Her pupils dilated and she gasped as if she had just run a mile. Seeing that she had calmed down, Zero slowly got off of Weiss, backing away to a respectable distance so she could collect herself.

"Zero?" she whispered, her voice sounding broken and lost.

"It's me," he reassured. "I take it that was the whole 'Bloody Absol' thing?"

Weiss bowed her head in shame. "Yeah..."

"It's fine," Zero said, seeing the dark type's guilt ridden face. "No one got hurt and you beat the Regice."

Weiss hummed noncommittally, clearly not convinced by Zero's words. Her eyes then widened in realization. "The Snorunt!"

She immediately dashed to the small Pokémon's side, fretting like a parent would over an injured child. She let out a loud sigh of relief when the little Pokémon stirred, albeit weakly. She quickly rushed over to Quill and grabbed an oran berry from the pack, knocking Quill over in the process.

"You could have asked," Quill grumbled, getting back up.

"Is it unconscious?" Furno asked, looking at the Regice.

"It would appear so," Newton replied. He then held out his frozen arm to the Chimchar. "If you don't mind..."

"Oh! S-Sure!" Furno spewed out a small stream of fire, slowly melting off the ice on the Beheeyem's arm. When he was done, he did the same for Dusty as Bella passed the Sandshrew an aspear berry.

"That wasn't so bad," Quill commented, walking over to the unmoving form of Regice.

"Um, were you fighting the same battle?" Weiss asked incredulously from her spot with the Snorunt. "We almost died!"

"Meh," Quill grunted nonchalantly. "It was no different from when we fought Regirock."

"You fought a Regirock?" Newton asked in interest. He made to ask more questions when a bright light suddenly built up in the room.

The Regice's prone form suddenly began to glow brightly, blinding the occupants of the room. When the light faded, Regice was gone. In its place was a light blue orb.

"Weird," Zero said, picking up the orb. "It's like the one we got from Regirock."

"Fascinating," Newton gushed, looking over the orb. He then paused as the room suddenly rumbled and two openings in the opposite walls opened. "The exit," he said. "We can now leave."

"Great. Let's get out of here already," Weiss said, earning nods of agreement from the rest of the group. Without another word the tired adventures went through the exit behind them and arrived outside the dungeon.

-Resistance-

 **Latios Division**

After they had left the dungeon, Newton bid them farewell. He allowed the group to keep the orb, saying that it was compensation for all they went through. He also gave them a few orbs, including a roll call orb. With a wave and a gracious thank you, the Beheeyem left in rather good spirits.

When the team finally made it back to the division, Weiss immediately made her way to the daycare with the little Snorunt, wanting to make sure he got settled in alright. Quill and Bella were sent to the missions office to report their success and collect their reward, something that they were all excited for. Dusty went with Quill and Bella as far as the lowest level before breaking off to pick out a new mission with explicit instructions to grab a nice C-rank mission. Quill wanted to do that, but Zero immediately vetoed that, not wanting a repeat of Frigid Cavern.

While the other were doing these tasks, Zero and Furno went off to find Team Tempest to gain some insight on the orbs they had received from the two regis. They found it strange that the regis would 'gift' them with orbs with no apparent purpose or use and they wanted some information.

"What do you think these orbs are?" Furno asked conversationally, looking down at the orange orb he was holding.

"Not sure," Zero said, holding the blue orb. "Hopefully Koga and I'zer will know."

"But Stride and Orion didn't know when we showed them," Furno pointed out.

"I think they were a little occupied with trying to kill one another," Zero joked.

"Yeah," Furno laughed. The duo continued on in pleasant silence, expertly avoiding the crowds of Pokémon. After several minutes, and several flights of stairs, Furno spoke up. "Hey, Zero?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think Stride and Orion are alright?" Furno asked.

"...I don't know," Zero confessed, his demeanor lowering slightly. "I mean, they _are_ incredibly strong by themselves, so it would stand to reason that they'd be fine together."

"But what about when they return?" Furno persisted. "Stride practically went traitor to go on this expedition. What do you think will happen to him when he gets back?"

"I honestly don't know," Zero said, shaking his head.

"All will be fine."

The duo jumped in fright at the sudden voice. The founding members of Team Dawn Breaker spun around and were greeted with the sight of Angela walking towards them.

"Angela?" Furno questioned. "What are you doing here?"

"Everything will turn out fine," the shiny Gardevoir said, apparently not hearing Furno's question. "The ends will justify the means."

"Okay... What does that mean?" Zero asked.

The Gardevoir stopped before the duo, looking down at them with a strange almost glassy-eyed look. "To seek the answers of the pure soul, the knight requires the assistance of his young disciples," she said dreamily. "The hearts of the guardians are needed to open the door to understanding. Make haste young ones. Your protector needs you."

"What do you-" Zero's question was cut off when he and Furno felt a familiar tug at the scruffs of their necks and everything went dark.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

Shaken Trust

Zero and Furno were dropped onto what felt like cold stone, their vision swimming.

"Guh," Furno groaned, stomach turning violently. "What was that?"

"Teleportation, I think," Zero gasped out, clutching his stomach. He remembered a similar feeling when he stepped on the warp trap back in Frigid Cavern, but it was nowhere near as awful as what they had just gone through.

After waiting several more minutes for the world to stop spinning, the duo finally opened their eyes to take stock of their surroundings. They appeared to be on a ledge in the middle of a cliff face. A craggy trail stretched out from either side, one leading off around the cliff, the other towards what appeared to be a cave entrance. The walls of the cliff were made up of layers upon layers of sedimentary rock, each layer a different shade of blue. Looking down over the cliff they could just see the canopy of a forest beneath a blanket of fog.

"GAAH!" Furno shrieked when he noticed how high up they were. He jolted so bad that Zero had to grab him lest he fall to his death. "Th-Thanks, Zero."

"I take it you don't like heights?" Zero said half jokingly.

"N-No, I'm not afraid of heights" Furno denied unconvincingly. "I'm afraid of _falling_ from heights."

"Right," Zero said with an eye roll. "So where do you think we are?"

"I'm not sure," Furno said, rapidly shuffling to the cliff face in an attempt to get away from the edge. "If we had our map then I could look it up, but it's in our pack."

Zero groaned at their misfortune. They were stuck in an unknown place without any food, items, or a map. They were officially screwed.

Taking another look around the cliff face for anything that could help them, Zero froze when his gaze locked onto a lumpy object on the trail. "Hey, Furno?"

"Hm?"

"Is that our pack?" Furno jumped to his feet and looked over to where Zero was pointing.

"What the heck?!" Furno jogged over to the pack, Zero close behind. "I don't believe it, this _is_ our pack!" Furno said, looking over the well worn pack.

"But how is that possible?" Zero asked. "Quill had this."

"Well considering that Angela was able to teleport us here, it would only make since that she could do the same to our pack," Furno reasoned, rummaging through the bag. "Wow, check it out!"

Zero leaned over his friend's shoulder and peered into their bag. Along with the various berries and fruit and few orbs that they had stockpiled, there were also several unfamiliar items. There were several seeds of various color, some Zero recognized and others he did not. Unfamiliar berries were mixed together with the others and Zero was certain that they did not have that many orbs when they returned from the division.

"This is the mother load!" Furno exclaimed. "There are leppa berries, jaboca berries, lum berries, a rocall orb, petrify orbs, elixirs, blast seeds, sleep seeds, there's even a few huge...apples..." Furno trailed off, his entire demeanor freezing.

"Furno?" Zero asked, slightly worried.

"These are reviver seeds," Furno said in complete away, pulling out three seeds. Unlike the other seeds that Zero had seen, these were almost double their size. They also seemed to be holding something, a small gold glowing orb floating in the center of the seed.

"Reviver seeds?" Zero asked, carefully taking one in his paw and looking it over. "What's so special about these?"

"You don't know?!" Furno gasped. "These seeds are incredibly valuable! In a dungeon, they have the power to heal anything. Even death."

"Seriously?!" Zero exclaimed, looking at the seed in his paws in a new light.

"Seriously!" Furno confirmed, looking into the pack for any more goodies. "They are literally life savers in a dungeon."

"But why are they in our pack?" Zero wondered aloud.

"I would assume the same reason as these," Furno said, pulling out the two orbs they had gotten from Regirock and Regice.

"I was wondering what happened to those," Zero said. "Angela must have put them and the other stuff into our pack when she teleported us, but why?"

"They must be important for something and, considering she packed them," Furno said. "And seeing that she packed all this other stuff, I can only guess she expects us to go on some kind of exploration, but why?"

"That's a lot of whys and not a lot of answers," Zero commented dryly. "Is the map in there?"

"Hold on." Furno resumed his rummaging before pulling out a yellow bandanna with two red flame-like markings on it and a golden swirl charm on a leather cord.

"What are those?"

"It's a muscle band and a nimble charm," Furno said in awe. "These things are almost as rare as reviver seeds! The muscle band raises the strength an attack power of the wearer while the nimble charm raises the special defense and special attack of any Chimchar that wears it."

"Special attack and special defense?" Zero asked confusedly. He had read up about various material regarding this world, including types and effects, but he was still unsure of the difference between attack and special attack.

"Just think long range attacks and defense against long range attacks," Furno said, waving his hand and pulling out the map. "Okay, if I'm reading this correctly then we are _really_ far north. Like, almost in the emperor's territory north."

"Angela teleported us that far?" Zero asked in shock.

"It looks that way. See?" Furno held out the map for Zero to see, pointing to a cliff face that resembled the one they were currently on. "It looks like we're on the Ironside Cliffs, a months travel from Scarred Field."

"That's really far," Zero gulped. He then frowned when he noticed something was drawn on the map. "It looks like there's a path drawn on it."

"Huh, you're right," Furno exclaimed. "It looks like it goes through the cliff and into a dungeon called Ironside Cave."

"Ironside Cave, huh? That must be the cave at the other end of this ledge." Zero gained a contemplative expression. "Angela obviously had some motive to sending us here, so we might as well follow the path she drew out for us."

"I guess so," Furno said uncertainly. "The only alternative is a months travel back to the division."

Zero smiled reassuringly and replaced his joy ribbon with the muscle band. Instantly he could feel energy flooding into his body like electricity. He then took the pack and slung it over his shoulder, grunting as he did so. "It's been a while since I've had to carry this thing."

Furno chuckled lightly, donning the nimble charm. "Let's go, Zero."

"Aye, aye, captain," Zero joked, earning a light punch in the arm from his friend. Sharing a laugh, the duo made their way towards the cave at the end of the ledge.

-Resistance-

 **Ironside Cave B1**

The duo entered the dungeon with an air of caution. After all, this was the first dungeon when it was just the two of them. They had to be careful.

The same blue stone that the cliff was made up of was present within the cave, the walls even had the same sedimentary layers. In the strange light that had no apparent source, the walls seemed to glint as if it were metallic.

"This place is strange," Furno commented, looking at the ground. "The ground, it's a lot harder than normal stone. I don't think I can tunnel through with dig." Furno sighed. "That's one less move available."

"We'll just have to be careful," Zero said.

"Is that your response for every dungeon?" Furno asked bemusedly.

"Shut up," Zero huffed, lashing out his paw for a half-hearted punch. Furno nimbly dodged, chuckling much to Zero's chagrin.

Despite his playful antics, Zero was incredibly worried. Typically, before entering another a dungeon, Zero would at least do some research on the Pokémon that inhabited it. While Zero had some idea of what they could face, he still had no idea how long the dungeon itself was. For all he knew, they could be going through a one hundred floor dungeon! Not to mention that they did not have a single escape orb.

Zero discretely glanced at Furno, who walked alongside him, seemingly carefree. Zero could not let Furno know how unsettled he was. That would just cause Furno to panic. No, Zero decided that he would just have to keep on a brave face. He had to be strong and protect his friend...

"Hey, look at that!" Furno suddenly exclaimed, snapping Zero from his thoughts. The Chimchar dashed forward a few paces, coming to a stop before a bruised and fairly dusty apple. "Score!" Furno exclaimed bending over to grab the fruit. He did not notice movement from the side of the room, but Zero did.

"Furno, look out!" Zero shouted, dashing forward and tackling his friend to the ground just as a silvery blur shot past them and smashed into the hard ground, surprisingly cratering the spot where Furno once stood.

"That was close," Furno gulped, looking at the crater his would be attacker caused. The attacker grunted and stepped back, glaring at the duo with bright blue eyes. The Pokémon was a rather large and bulky quadruped with tough metallic armor covering its gray body. It had holes all over its metal armor.

"A Larion," Zero grunted, preparing to charge, but the steel-rock type beat him to it.

The dungeon Pokémon roared angrily before charging forward with a take down attack. Thinking quickly, Zero pushed Furno to the side and took the hit straight to the chest. Zero gasped painfully, pain blossoming over his chest, as he was thrown several feat back, landing in a heap.

"Zero!" Furno shouted in alarm. Glaring at the Pokémon that had hurt his friend, Furno struck the Larion in the side with a brutal flame wheel.

The Larion screeched in pain, fire licking over its body. The Pokémon stayed on its feet, but it was looking pretty rough. Zero, but that point, had gotten back to his feet. He looked over to the attacking Pokémon and, seeing how damaged it was, sought to finish it off, but was stopped by a sudden cry.

"DUDE!" Zero turned just to be pelted in the face by a large stone.

With a sharp cry, Zero fell back to the ground, holding his face. He opened a single eye and saw that his attacker was a Geodude, a floating rock with arms. Getting back up, Zero glared at the rock type, still holding his nose which, by that point, had started to bleed.

"Geo!" Another shout came from the corridor to Zero's left. Eyes quickly shifting towards the sound, he saw another Geodude floating into the room, moving to flank Zero.

Zero looked back and forth between the two Geodude, bringing up his guard. From the corner of his eye he could see Furno avoiding the Larion as it tried to attack him. Zero needed to deal with the two Geodude quickly and go to his friend.

"GEO!" the two Geodude shouted, both charging at the former human with twin tackle attacks.

Not missing a beat, Zero jumped straight into the air, causing the two rock types to slam into each other. Landing a few paces away, Zero just forward, ramming both of the stunned Pokémon with a quick attack.

The two Geodude fell to the floor in a tangle of limbs. Zero stared at the struggling duo for a second longer before turning to assist Furno. As he took a single step, his instincts flared and he dove to the side as several large rocks smashed into the ground where he once stood.

Whipping around, eyes burning with fury, Zero glared coldly at the two Geodude, one of whom had managed to conjure several rocks and hurl them at the Riolu. With a low growl, Zero raised an arm, bringing forth a violent tempest of blue winds. Some part of him seemed to take pleasure in seeing the terrified looks on the Geodude's faces, but he quickly squashed it. With a flick of his arm, Zero unleashed a large vacuum wave towards the twin rock types.

The fighting energy charged winds enveloped the rock Pokémon before exploding. Both Geodude flew through the smoke in opposite directions, crashing violently against the iron-like walls and floor. With a final groan from each dungeon Pokémon, they slipped into unconsciousness.

Nodding once, satisfied that the two Geodude would not be getting back up, Zero, once more, turned towards where Furno was fighting the Larion, just in time to see his friend engulf the steel-rock type in flames. When the flames died down, the Larion was laying on its side, unconscious.

Furno, panting lightly, grinned in triumph and wiped his forehead free of sweat. "Piece of cake."

"Furno! Are you okay?" Zero asked worriedly, running up to his friend.

"I'm fine, Ze-" Furno cut himself off when he saw the state the former human was in. "Holy Arceus! Zero! You're bleeding!"

"I'm fine," Zero said, waving off the Chimchar's worry. "Are you okay though? You did not get hurt, did you?"

"No, I never got touched," Furno said, still looking at his friend in concern. "Are you sure you're okay? We've got extra oran and sitrus berries..."

"I'm fine. My nose's already stopped bleeding," Zero assured. He 'discreetly' looked over Furno again, to assure to himself that the Chimchar was indeed unharmed, before looked around the room. "We should keep going," he continued. "Our fight probably attracted more Pokémon."

"Right," Furno said, his voice sounding strange. Zero frowned at that, he was about to question the chimp Pokémon, but decided against it. Instead he took a random path, delving deeper into the dungeon with Furno behind him.

-Resistance-

 **Ironside Cave B6**

The duo swiftly made there way through the winding cave system. As expected, the duo encountered several other steel and rock types. Aron, Larion, and Geodude for the most part, but steel and rock types none the less. Thanks to their type advantages, the two members of Team Dawn Breaker tore through the floors with relative ease, only stopping every once in a while to rest and regain their strength. However, the enemies were not the duo's main concern.

Throughout the dungeon, Furno had noticed Zero acting strangely. The Riolu seemed to be acting more reckless with each passing floor. Furno originally wrote this off as his friend wanting to get out of the dungeon as quickly as he could, but the Riolu was getting worse. Zero would throw himself at enemies before they even attacked them, catching the majority of the Pokémon off guard, but leaving himself open for counter attacks. Furno remembered when Quill did a similar thing when Dusty had joined them on their missions, but this seemed different.

Yes Zero attacked recklessly, but there was another purpose to it. Furno did not notice until Zero jumped in front of an attacking Bronzor as Furno was about to dodge. It seemed that Zero was acting the way he was in hopes to _protect_ Furno instead of showing off.

This confused Furno. The Chimchar knew that Zero had always been protective over him, and the other members of the team, but this was taking it to a new level. The former human was acting more like a shield than a partner. As if Furno himself was a client and not a part of the team and Furno wanted it to stop. He was about to say something about it, but they were attacked before they could.

The duo had only been walking for ten minutes at the most when they felt a sudden rumble pass through the room.

Zero and Furno stopped instantly, thinking that there was something large stomping over to them. The duo strained their ears, listening for the sound again, but they were met with silence. Believing that they had just imagined, Zero and Furno made to continue when the room shook, this time much more violently.

"Wh-What was that?" Furno asked if not a bit fearfully, another quake rippling through the room.

"I don't-" Zero began, only be cut off when the ground between him and Furno cracked and exploded outwards.

Both resistance members were flung towards separate ends of the room, large clumps of hard stone and dust spewing out like a broken fountain. From the epicenter of the explosion a large rock snake with a deadly looking horn on its head burst forth, roaring a challenge.

"An Onix!" Furno exclaimed. Said Onix, as if responding to its name, whirled around and looked down at Furno, growling lowly at the young fire type. Seeing this, Zero saw red.

"Back off!" With a shout, Zero lunged forward and slammed a force palm into the Onix's flank.

The Onix roared in pain as the flash of fighting type energy lanced through its body. Turning and glaring at the one that had caused its pain, the Onix swung its tail, catching Zero in the gut. With an loud "Umph!", Zero was thrown across the room, skipping and skidding across the ground.

"Leave him alone!" Furno shouted when the Onix attempted to go after Zero. Taking a deep breath, Furno released a powerful flamethrower at the rock snake Pokémon. Bright red flames engulfed the rock snake, eliciting a loud roar from the Onix. Still engulfed by fire, the rock type swung its tail at Furno, forcing he small chimp to jump away.

Now focused on the Chimchar, the Onix slithered towards the fire type at startling speeds. Lowering its head so that it was level with the Chimchar, the Onix suddenly jutted forward, trying to gore Furno with its horn.

Once again, Furno was able to nimbly dodge out of the way, causing the Onix to slam into the ground. The rock snake's horn, upon missing its intended target, sank into the stone like a hot knife through butter. The dungeon Pokémon growled angrily, thrashing violently as it tried to get its horn free from the stone.

Furno, with the Onix temporarily incapacitated, ran forward to attack it, but Zero, who had recovered a few seconds earlier, cut in front of him. With a growl, Zero sped forward and struck the rock type with a force palm.

"What the heck, Zero?!" Furno demanded angrily.

"What?" Zero questioned, still glaring at the trapped Onix.

"You just jumped in front of me!"

"I was attacking the Onix."

"You were stopping me from getting close!" Zero paused in his attack and turned back to look at Furno.

"What?"

"Don't 'what' me!" Furno snarled. "You deliberately jumped in front of me before I could attack!"

Zero frowned. "I just wanted to make sure the job got done."

"Job got done?!" Furno repeated, an incredulous tone in his voice. "What the _hell_ does that mean?!"

"Nothing!" Zero replied hastily. "I just meant that it would get done faster if it were to be hit with a super effective attack. The only move you have that would be super effective is dig and you can't use it here..."

"Oh really?" Furno sneered, clearly not believing Zero. "Then how do you explain you doing the same thing when we're fighting steel types?!"

"I-"

"Not to mention you're practically jumping at any dungeon Pokémon we see," Furno continued, steamrolling right over whatever Zero was about to say. "I mean, you're acting like Quill was when he was all jealous of Dusty." Furno stepped forward, getting right in Zero's face. "What's your deal?"

Zero looked away, unable to meet Furno's gaze. "I don't know what you're talking about," the Riolu refuted. "I'm just trying to get us through this dungeon as quickly as possible."

"That's a bunch of crap and you know it!" Furno said, his coarse language shocking Zero to the point where his head snapped up.

Zero open his mouth to say something but an angry growl caused the words to die in his throat. The duo turned in time to see the Onix, which had been all but ignored up until that point, free its horn from the ground. The rock snake glared hatefully at the two smaller Pokémon and swung its tail at them, this time coating it in a metallic light. Unprepared, the duo were caught by the sudden iron tail and thrown across the room, skidding across the floor until they slammed into the opposite wall.

Zero recovered first and groggily got to his feet. He looked beside him and became infuriated seeing Furno still on his back, groaning in pain. Turning his glare to the source of his friend's pain, Zero growled lowly.

"You'll pay for that," Zero said under his breath, before charging forward.

The Onix bellowed loudly, shaking its body as it did so. Multiple stones, all coated in a silvery light, then formed around its body. With another roar, the Onix sent the stone barreling towards the encroaching Riolu.

Zero saw the stones and cursed under his breath. He jumped, dodged, and sidestepped the flying rocks as they tried to crush him. After dodging a particularly large stone, Zero jumped into the air and sent out a vacuum wave at the rock snake. The blade of blue wind cut through several other stones before impacting against the Onix.

With another bellow of pain, the Onix faltered. The great rock type bowed slightly, its body trembling from strain. Furno then ran past Zero and struck the Onix with a flame wheel, causing the rock-ground to cry out in pain.

Furno landed before the Onix and glared up at it in defiance. The Onix, with only one eye open, glared weakly at the chimp Pokémon. Mustering up its remaining strength, the Onix coiled slightly like a spring, preparing for another headbutt. Furno tensed, preparing to dodge the attack, when Zero suddenly tackled him.

"Watch out!" Zero shouted as he tackled his friend to the floor.

"Zero!" Furno exclaimed angrily.

Unable to stop itself, the Onix, once more, slammed into the ground. Rolling into a crouch, Zero kicked forward hitting the Onix with a final force palm. A flash of light later and one pained filled cry, the Onix was rendered unconscious.

Zero sighed in relief when the Onix did not get back up. He turned around to say something to Furno, but stopped when he saw the look of anger on his friend's face.

"What the hell was that?!" Furno demanded. "I was about to dodge! You didn't need to push me out of the way!"

"I just wanted to be sure," Zero explained.

"To be sure? What, did you think I was too slow to actually dodge?" Furno asked nastily. "I was fine, Zero. I don't need you swooping in to save me."

"I'm not saying you do," Zero said through gritted teeth. "I'm just being cautious."

"Being cautious? Since when are you _that_ cautious? You are literally pushing me away from fights and trying to do everything yourself!" Furno shouted.

"I am not," Zero denied.

"You are!" Furno yelled. "Throughout this dungeon you've been doing it! Why? Why are you acting like I can't fight?!"

Zero opened his mouth to say something, but soon closed it, remaining silent. When Zero refused to answer, Furno's expression became closed off. Turning on his heel, Furno began to walk towards a corridor.

"Where are you going?" Zero asked.

"I'm getting through this dungeon," Furno responded coldly, causing the Riolu to flinch. "I don't need you to protect me."

"Furno..." The Chimchar ignored Zero's words and exited the room. Zero inwardly cursed, a flicker of guilt making itself known. With a sigh, he hurried after his friend, not willing to leave him alone in the dungeon.

Resistance-

 **Ironside Cave B13**

Things did not get better between the duo as time went on. When Zero had caught up with the fire type, he received no acknowledgment from Furno. The Chimchar just continued on his way, ignoring the Riolu's existence. He would not even follow the Riolu through the dungeon, despite Zero being the leader. The chimp Pokémon would just go which ever direction he chose, forcing Zero to follow.

They encountered several other Pokémon through their travels and it was these moments where things between the two were at their worse.

Now it was Furno jumping into battle without any regard for his own safety. Zero tried to help, but every time he attempted to protect his friend, he received a harsh glare in return. Furno even refused to use the items that Zero was carrying, only using the items he found on the ground. Zero could only watch from a distant, guilt that he had caused this change in his friend.

Furno was absolutely furious. He had been going on missions with Zero for months, fighting at the Riolu's side time and time again and this is the thanks he gets? Treated as if he were made of glass, incapable of fighting his own battles? No. Furno was not going to stand for that!

Furno ducked away from a smack down attack from a Boldore before giving it a thunder punch in return.

The young Chimchar refused to be babied by someone he saw as a friend. He would prove that he was not weak.

With a rage filled shout, Furno spewed out a gout of fire, far larger than what he was normally capable of, at the Boldore. The rock type gave an earsplitting screech as it was engulfed in fire. Unable to take the pain anymore, the rocky type collapsed, succumbing to unconsciousness.

Zero, who had just defeated two Aron, cautiously walked to his side. He took not of the scratches and bruises that littered the fire type's body, courtesies of the various rock types that Furno had fought. Zero quickly grabbed an oran berry from the bag and tentatively held it out to the Chimchar.

Furno glanced at the fruit from the corner of his eye, but said nothing. Zero awkwardly stood there, berry in hand, waiting to see what Furno would do. Neither Pokémon spoke for a tense minute before Furno snatched the berry out of Zero's paw and marched off, taking a large bite out of the blue fruit.

Zero inwardly sighed, a small smile gracing his lips. He knew this was in no way Furno forgiving him, but it was at least a step in the right direction. Zero sighed, still feeling guilty over the way he was treating Furno, but he could not stop. He needed to protect his friend.

Zero was about to follow after Furno when he noticed a Bronzor heading towards Furno, floating in the Chimchar's blind spot. Without even thinking, Zero pushed energy into his legs and exploded forward, a trail of white energy following in his wake.

The Bronzor's had just began to glow when Furno turned around, apparently detecting the steel-psychic type. Just as the Bronzor used extrasensory to attack the Chimchar, Zero arrived, jumping right in front of the attack and getting blasted back several feat for his troubles.

Before the Bronzor could attack again, it was engulfed in a gout of flames from Furno. When the Bronzor fell to the ground, clattering on the ground much like a fallen coin, and turned towards Zero, but instead of helping him, Furno glared.

"I told you I don't need your help!" Furno snapped, stomping away from Zero as the Riolu was struggling to get up.

Zero groaned softly, his body still aching from the super effective attack. "And back to square one," he groaned to himself, getting up and following a ways behind the still angered Chimchar.

Thankfully, when the duo reached the end of the corridor, the stairs sat innocently in the middle of the large room that was fool of items from orbs to poké. Furno boldly entered the room without a single care, but Zero was much more cautious. He recalled Weiss saying something about large rooms with an abundance of items with no visible Pokémon.

Zero's eyes snapped open in sudden realization as he remembered the Absol's exact words. "Furno!" he shouted, earning himself a glare from the Chimchar, but he did not care. "It's a monster house!"

The second those words left his mouth, dungeon Pokémon suddenly appeared. Aron, Larion, Bronzor, Geodude, and many others seemed to just fall from the ceiling, filling the entire room, surrounding the Chimchar. Zero cursed and ran to his friends side and grabbed the fire type's arm.

"We need to go," Zero hissed urgently.

Furno gave the Riolu a rather severe look before tearing his arm out of the fighting type's grasp. "I'm not going anywhere," Furno growled before leaping at the closest enemy.

Zero cursed and made to run after the Chimchar, but was stopped by a Bronzor attempting to bash his head in with a gyro ball. For the next few minutes everything was a blur for the Riolu as he kicked, punched, and clawed at everything that got close to him. Countless enemies fell to his strength, but more would appear to take their place. Eventually, a gap appeared in the seemingly endless wall of dungeon Pokémon, allowing Zero to see the only corridor that led in and out of the room and he paled at what he saw.

Spilling into the room were even more dungeon Pokémon, adding to the already alarming mass of enemies already present. Zero gritted his teeth as he saw that their chances of actually winning this battle were quickly slipping through their fingers. They had to leave immediately.

Zero slowly began to push through the scores of enemies, taking quite a few hits as he did so, but he did not care. After what felt like forever, Zero laid eyes on his partner and was pained to see that the chimp Pokémon had his own share of injuries littering his body, but the fire type showed no sign of backing down. Zero quickly made his way over to the fire type's side and grabbed his arm before beginning to pull the fire type towards the stairs.

"Oi! Let me go!" Furno cried, struggling to break the Riolu's grip, but he could not beat the fighting type's natural strength.

"We're getting out of here. Now!" Zero emphasized, tugging a resisting Furno along with him.

Zero finally managed to pull the Chimchar over to the stairs, ignoring Furno's curses and demanded for the emanation Pokémon to let him go. With a final pull, both Zero and Furno reached the staircase and found their surroundings, and the dungeon Pokémon, disappearing and replaced by a singular empty room.

The moment they touched down, Furno managed to tear his arm out of the Riolu's grasp and snarled at him. "What the hell, Zero?!" he shouted. "I was fine! You didn't need to pull me away!"

"There were way too many of them. Neither of us could have fought all of them, especially not with me worrying that you'll get taken out every second." Zero shot back. The moment those words left his lips, Zero immediately regretted it as he saw the look of absolute fury appear on his friend's face.

"Oh, screw you," Furno hissed, his tail flame flaring dangerously in conjunction to his anger. "I don't need you watching out for me. I'm fully capable of taking care of myself!"

"No, that's not what I meant," Zero said, his tone slightly desperate.

"Then what did you mean?" Furno demanded, a flicker of hurt flashing over his eyes. "Why are you treating me like I'm weak? I'm just as strong as you!"

Zero bit his tongue, stopping himself from speaking. He wanted so desperately to confide in his friend of his own fears, but he could not bring himself to do it. He is the leader of the team, he had to be strong. He was not allowed to show weakness. Especially in this kind of this kind of environment. As such, the former human kept his mouth closed.

When Zero continued to keep silent, Furno seemed to sag ever so slightly. "I see. So that's how it is..." Zero felt that his heart was being stabbed when he heard the dead and cold tone in his friend's voice, but he kept his silence.

The Chimchar turned away from his friend, refusing to speak to him any longer. Zero held out a paw and reached out to Furno, as if seeking to grab the fire type's shoulder, but froze. A second passed before Zero allowed his arm to slump limply to his side, his head bowed.

A tense silence surrounded the two resistance members, one that seemed to be unbreakable. Then, all of a sudden, a bright light shone at the far end of the room, forcing both Zero and Furno to shield their eyes. When the light finally died down, and the duo were able to see once more, there was a Pokémon standing across from them.

The Pokémon was spherical in shape, or rather its top part was, and gray in color. A vertical black stripe ran down its 'face' with nine red dots arranged in the shape of a hexagon. Its arms were long enough to reach the ground and black in color with three gray fingers on each hand. Its legs were short and cylindrical.

"Registeel," Furno whispered so softly that Zero had to strain to here him. "The last of the regis."

The steel titan's eyes flashed in a random pattern before flashing in unison. A metallic screech echoed from the titan as it raised its arms in a threatening manner. Both Zero and Furno tensed at that, preparing to fight the steel type and finally escape the dungeon.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

Forged Understanding

Zero cursed as he dodged another flash cannon by diving to the ground so that the screaming beam of silvery energy rushed overhead. Once the attack had finished, the former human quickly scrambled to his feet and dashed out of the Registeel's line of sight. At the same time, Furno ran forward and engulfed the steel type in red hot flames.

Zero internally flinched at the intensity of the flames, not so much from the power that the Chimchar was displaying, but the ferocity and anger behind the attack. Zero could feel his teammates anger flooding the room. It was so unlike Furno who, even when fighting, displayed a nervous or excitable energy. But now, Furno was all anger and Zero was sure that it was not all because of Registeel.

However, despite the Chimchar's rage and and fire, the Registeel proved to be incredibly hardy. Even when faced with super effective attacks, the Registeel just powered through everything. Still covered in flames, the steel titan turned and, with a glowing arm, cut through Furno's flamethrower and smashed Furno across the room with its hammer arm.

Furno soared through the air before slamming into the opposite with a loud thud before slumping to the ground, gasping for air. Registeel began to stomp over towards the Chimchar, its hands glowing silver and its fingers lengthening into claws. Zero saw this and immediately leapt into action.

Zero raced across the rooms, aided by the use of quick attack, and rammed into the legendary's side. He immediately regretted this action as pain shot through his shoulder upon contact. The legendary's body was so dense and strong that Zero's quick attack had done more damage to himself than the legendary. Fortunately, or unfortunately, it was enough to gain the legendary's attention and Zero was forced to duck under a metal claw and immediately leapt back to put some distance between him and the steel titan. However, as he attempted this, the Registeel did something unexpected. It stretched its arms.

Zero's eyes widened in shock as the steel type's arms stretched across the room reaching the Riolu seconds after he had jumped. Unable to dodge, the legendary's claws slashed Zero across the chest, eliciting a sharp cry from the Riolu. Zero fell to through, landing harshly on his side, paws gripping his injury.

A series of beeping came from the legendary before its arms streaked towards Zero again, its claws bared. Zero quickly rolled out of the way just as the Registeel's claws sunk into the ground where he once was. Zero then scrambled to his feet and send a blade of wind at the legendary as it retracted its arms. With wind slammed into the legendary, pushing it across the ground several inches, its feet digging into the ground to keep it steady.

Once more, the legendary's durability proved itself as the legendary shook off the hit and seemed to glare. Its 'eyes' flashed bright red in apparent anger and took a step forward only to be blindsided by Furno who slammed into the steel type with a flame wheel. Unprepared for the attack, the Registeel stumbled before falling flat on its face.

Furno rolled to a stop next to Zero and glared at the Registeel. Electricity crackled from around his fist before completely engulfing his fist. He made to charge forward, but was halted by Zero grabbing his arm.

"Hold on," Zero said. "We can't just rush in. None of our attacks have been doing much against it. We need a plan."

"We don't need a plan," Furno hissed at the Riolu. "We just need to keep attacking before it can recover."

"Furno, if you keep rushing in like that, you're going to get hurt," Zero said, trying to get Furno to understand. Unfortunately, this appeared to be the wrong thing to say.

Blue eyes flashed in anger before Furno snatched his arm out of Zero's grip. "I don't need you to look out for me, Zero!" the fire type snapped before running towards the legendary. Zero cursed under his breath and took off after his friend.

When Furno had reached the Registeel, the legendary was already back on its feet, but the fire type was undeterred. The chimp Pokémon said pulled back his fist and punched the legendary as hard as he could. A resounding impact rang through the chamber upon contact. Electricity sparked across the legendary's body, but it appeared otherwise unfazed. Meanwhile, Furno winced as pain shot through his hand as he literally punched steel.

Unimpressed by the attack, Registeel began to charge up a flash cannon, intent on blasting the fire type away. Just before the legendary could release the attack upon Furno, Zero came out of nowhere and tackled his friend out of the way. The two young resistance members crashed to the ground just as the beam of steel type energy scooped a large trench into the hard ground.

Safe for the moment, the duo quickly got to their feet. Furno glared heatedly at Zero, but said nothing, something that Zero took as a win. Ignoring his friend for a moment, Zero quickly dashed forward, doing the very thing that he told Furno not to and rushed the steel type. With his paws filled with energy, Zero lunged forward, both paws outstretched to deliver twin force palms. Just as he was about to make contact, Zero saw something.

For a split second, the legendary's color changed. Its arms, face, and 'eyes' all turned steel gray, mirroring its main body. The change faded as quickly as it came, leaving Zero wondering if he had truly seen it or if it was a trick of the light. Unfortunately, Zero did not have time or the desire to hesitate and kept closing in with his attack. Reaching his target, Zero slammed a foot onto the ground and slammed his paws into the steel body of Registeel, transferring all the force from his run and attack into the legendary.

There was a bright flash of light followed by a cacophonous explosion as the fighting type energy exploded against the legendary. However, much to Zero shock, the attack that could have sent a Rhyhorn flying onto its back, only served to push the legendary back several feat. Feet digging into the ground, Registeel came to a stop, only being pushed back two feat. Not even a second later, Registeel, who was apparently unfazed by Zero's attack, shot both its arms towards the Riolu. Before the Riolu could react, Registeel smashed twin hammer arm attacks into Zero's front, catapulting him through the air.

Furno charged forward, barely glancing at Zero as he was thrown high into the air and across the room. He dove forward, rolling forward and engulfing his body in flames. He then rammed into the legendary with a large amount of force. However, like with Zero, the Registeel was hardly affected.

Furno continued to push into the legendary, actually causing the Registeel to move back a few inches. Registeel's eyes flashed before it suddenly lashed out, grabbing the burning wheel. Ignoring the flames that were licking at its hands, Registeel lifted Furno into the air and threw him to the ground with enough force to crack the stone.

Furno gasped in pain, coming out of his flame wheel as he bounced off the ground. Still reeling, the fire type was unprepared for when Registeel suddenly _kicked_ him hard in the stomach, sending him skidding across the room.

Furno growled, both in pain and anger. His tail flame burst with renewed life as his blaze ability activated. With a primal roar, Furno unleashed a powerful gout of fire at the Registeel, engulfing it completely in fire.

The steel type's body began to turn bright red as Furno's flames assaulted it. Even so, Registeel's eyes flashed and a red beam shot out and hit Furno in the chest. The beam seemed to do no outward harm to the Chimchar, merely roaming over Furno's body like a small searchlight. The light then stopped right over Furno's heart and the beam flickered out of existence, leaving a small target mark on Furno's chest.

The Chimchar in question appeared not to have noticed his new acquisition and continued to breath fire on the legendary, but Zero noticed. Zero, having recovered from the attack from the legendary, looked up just in time to see the beam hit Furno and leave its mark. Zero recognized this attack as lock on, a move that made the user's next attack never miss. Realizing that this meant that Registeel was preparing something, Zero dashed forward with quick attack.

Zero's intuition proved to be spot on as he watched Registeel suddenly swiped at Furno, its arm stretching in order to reach Furno. With an audible slap, Furno was sent to the ground, his flamethrower dying out, leaving Registeel a bright red. As Furno got back to his feet, clearly dazed, the red hot steel type began to gather an incredible amount of electricity in its hands.

A virtual storm of electricity swarmed forth, condensing into a large ball. The ball began to swell in size as more and more electricity was pumped into it, the center of the orb actually shifting to a red color from the sheer intensity of the energy being pushed into it. The steel titan lined its palms up with Furno, preparing to fire its attack when Zero appeared in front of it.

With a shout, and a internal chastisement of his own recklessness, Zero lashed out with his right paw, delivering a fierce force palm into the Registeel's attack. At first, Zero attack cut through the electricity, an uncomfortable jolt of numbness traveling up his arm as he did so. A brief flash of confusion crossed Zero's face as his arm suddenly stopped pushing forward until he realized that he had reached Registeel's body. That when both of their attacks detonated.

The entire chamber shook violently as Zero's force palm and Registeel's zap cannon exploded. Both Pokémon were blasted away from one another, thrown to separate ends of the room. Registeel, having been launched the shorter distance of the two, smashed into the ground, its heavy body actually digging into the heavy stone and leaving a trench in the stone. Zero, being the lighter of the two, was tossed like a rag doll, bouncing off the stone and skidding to a halt at Furno's feet.

"Zero!" Furno gasped, having regained clarity. All anger was forgotten and the fire type worried over his friend.

"Zero!" he repeated, tentatively touching his friend's shoulder. Zero answered with a hiss of pain, pulling himself into a sitting position, his right paw clutched tightly to his chest. Furno took a look at Zero's paw, tentatively pulling it away from Zero in order to get a better look, and visibly winced.

The Riolu's paw was almost completely black, his fur singed by the legendary's attack. The only spots where his fur was not black, it was a dark crimson color, the fur stained with Zero's own blood. Zero's paw also was shaking uncontrollably, whether from pain or left over electricity sending spasms through his muscles Furno did not know. His fingers were bent in disturbingly awkward angles, causing Furno to feel slightly nauseous at the sight.

"Mother of Mew," Furno muttered as he saw that state of his friend's paw. "That looks bad."

Zero just groaned in response, pulling his paw back to his chest. Furno quickly got behind Zero and began to rummage through the pack on the fighting type's back, which had thankfully been spared from the explosion, and pulled out a sitrus berry. "Here," he said offering the berry to Zero.

Zero, however, did not take the berry, shaking his head in denial. "We can't keep doing this," Zero said, barely keeping his pain out of his voice.

"What?" Furno questioned, clearly confused.

"The way we're fighting," Zero clarified. He then shakily got to his feet, ignoring Furno's cries to stay still, and looked his friend straight in the eye. "We can't keep fighting like this, attacking randomly without any coordination. If we keep fighting like that, then we will lose for sure."

As Zero spoke, Registeel began to stir. With a series of weak tones, the steel titan began to push itself back to its feet. It was clearly stunned, but it was recovering fast.

Furno saw this and grimaced, feeling his own injuries flare up. "We need to work together if we want to win," Zero said, drawing Furno's attention back to him.

A pained look that was not due to pain crossed Furno's face. "How can we work together if you don't even trust me?" he practically whispered, but Zero heard him.

"I do trust you, Furno."

"Then why do you keep acting like I'm made of glass?!" Furno demanded. "Why is it that you are jumping in front of me and keeping me from fighting?! Why, Zero?! Why are you treating me like this?!"

Zero was taken aback by Furno's sudden explosion of emotion. Pain, confusion, sadness, and betrayal all cutting at Zero along with the Chimchar's words. It felt like a stone had dropped into his stomach when Zero heard Furno's words. All of the fire type's pain did nothing but increase the bubbling pit of guilt that had been building up since the start of the dungeon.

"Furno...that's not...I do trust you," Zero said, wincing at how weak his words sounded. Swallowing, Zero regained his composure and spoke with more confidence. "I swear to you that I do trust you. I trust you with my life. It was wrong of me to act the way I did, but right now, that's all in the past. We need to move past that and fight together if we want to win."

Furno still looked like he wanted to argue, but seeing Registeel getting to its feet. "Fine," Furno grunted reluctantly. He then offered the yellow fruit to the Riolu. "Here, you'll need your strength back."

"No," Zero responded, once more rejecting the fruit. "I have an idea. You see that dent on Registeel?"

Furno wanted to demand that Zero sit down and eat the berry, but yielded and looked at the steel type. The legendary's body had returned to its usual gray color having cooled off from Furno's previous flamethrower. However, Furno noticed a rather large dent right over where the legendary's heart would be.

"Before, I could hardly scratch its armor," Zero began to explain. "It became even harder when it used iron defense, but when you used flamethrower..."

"It's armor becomes more malleable," Furno realized.

"Just like the equipment at the training center," Zero said, recalling their failed combo attack. "But simply making its armor malleable won't be enough. You need to make Registeel hot enough to where its armor is practically melting. Then I'll come in and finish it off."

"Are you crazy?!" Furno asked incredulously. "There's no way I can generate that much heat!"

"I trust you, Furno," Zero said, immediately silencing the Chimchar. The two stared at one another, both of their gazes filled with a multitude of emotion. Neither of them broke eye contact until Registeel released a loud shriek of anger.

"Alright," Furno finally agreed. "I'll do what I can, but are you sure you can do a strong enough attack to finish it off?"

"Hmm," Zero grunted assuredly. Furno hesitated for a short time before nodding in acceptance and turning to face the legendary. Steeling his nerves, Furno ran towards the legendary, his flames burning brighter than ever.

Registeel gave another shriek and lashed out with its stretchy arms, aiming to gore the Chimchar, but the nimble fire type evaded. Weaving through they flurry of metal claws, Furno came to halt a mere ten feat away and released the strongest flamethrower he could muster.

Flames once more licked over the legendary's body, eliciting a pained series of beeps. It moved its arms in front of its face, trying to lesson the damage it was receiving. It then took a single step forward into the flames then another and another, steadily moving closer to the Chimchar.

Furno saw this and tried to put more power into his attack. His tail flame erupted with power, intensifying from Furno's will alone. The chimp Pokémon's throat was being burned raw as he pushed more flames out of his mouth. Tears bit at Furno's eyes, blurring his vision, only to evaporate from the heat Furno was producing.

 _More,_ Furno thought. _I need more heat!_

No sooner had this thought crossed the fire type's mind, it felt like switch had been flipped. A new well spring of power burst forth from the pit of his belly. His tail flame exploded in bright orange fire that glowed like the sun, the tip of the fire cresting well above Furno's head. His flamethrower too increased in power, matching the same color and glow as Furno's tail fire as it swallowed the legendary.

Registeel, who had been inches away from crushing the Chimchar, was pushed back by the sudden influx of power. The steel type stumbled back, screeching in pain, its voice sounding oddly warped like a dented horn. With a final burst, Furno cut off his attack and fell back completely exhausted.

"Now, Zero!" Furno shouted hoarsely, barely conscious at that point.

Zero shouted in response, running past Furno. A brilliant blue light wrapping around his uninjured paw like a swirling vortex of energy. Curling his fingers into a tight fist, Zero came right up to Registeel, who by that point had become white hot from Furno's attack, sent a punch towards the legendary. The moment Zero's paw touched the steel type's glowing body, the blue energy was released in a large blast of energy.

Furno was forced to cover his eyes as blue light invaded his vision. He could just make out Zero's outline in the center of the light, his fist still extended. The light finally faded, and smoke took up the entirety of the chamber. Furno coughed and began wafting the smoke out of his face, his gaze still full on the spot where he last saw Zero and Registeel.

The smoke slowly began to lift, revealing Zero, still standing with his fist outstretched. Furno held his breath as Registeel too came into view. However, as more of the legendary's body was revealed, Furno gasped.

The legendary's body was heavily dented. Almost the entire front of the steel legendary was dented in to the point where it looked as if Registeel was bending forward. Its arms hung limply at its side, swaying ever so slightly as Registeel's now top heavy body listed back and forth. Its eyes flashed red once more before turning completely dark. Without a sound, the legendary fell backwards and collapsed.

Zero stood above the unconscious legendary for a second, his head bowed, his eyes shadowed. Furno opened his mouth to call out to his friend when the Riolu suddenly fell backwards and collapsed onto the ground where he remained unmoving.

Alarmed, Furno rushed to his friend's side. The Chimchar cursed when he saw that the former human's eyes were closed and his breath was coming out in slow, yet ragged, pants. Seeing that his friend was in no shape to eat a berry, Furno dug into the pack, frantically searching for something that could help. A few seconds later, Furno's fingers closed around a familiar oblong shape.

Reverently, Furno pulled out one of the glowing reviver seed. Hesitating for a fraction of a second, Furno made up his mind and shoved the seed into his friends mouth. Furno was forced to manually move Zero's jaws to masticate the seed before massaging the Riolu's throat to induce swallowing.

Furno waited with bated breath as the seed began to take immediate effect. A golden glow encompassed the Riolu's still form, mending the fighting type's injuries. Even the Riolu's blackened paw straightened out and stopped bleeding, though the fur remained blackened. The glow then dispersed and a second later, Zero coughed roughly and began to stir.

"Thank, Arceus," Furno sighed in relief as his friend returned to consciousness.

"What happened?" Zero groaned. "Did I do it."

"Oh yeah. You did it," Furno said, rolling his eyes and helping the Riolu rise to a sitting position. When Zero saw the damage he did to Registeel, he visibly winced.

"Jeez. I didn't think I'd do _that_ much damage to it," Zero said. "Do you think its okay?"

No sooner had these words left Zero's mouth, a blinding glow erupted from the Registeel's body, blinding both resistance members. When the glow faded, all that was left where the legendary last laid was a gray orb.

"Just like the other two," Furno murmured, more to himself than to Zero. He then got up and walked over to the orb. Staring at it for a second, Furno shrugged and bent over to pick up the orb. He turned to face Zero, who was just getting to his feet.

"You know, I had to use a reviver to bring you back to full health," Furno commented almost offhandedly, only the sharpness of the fire type's eyes alerted Zero that the comment was meant to be a jab. "We've only got two left now."

"Sorry," Zero apologized, gaze falling to the ground.

Furno stared at the Riolu for a second before sighing. "It's fine," he said, putting the gray orb with the other two. "We really didn't have much of a choice. We could have been a lot worse off if you hadn't done what you did."

Zero lifted his head, a shy smile on his face. He was about to say something when a loud rumble shook the entire chamber. Turning towards the source, the duo saw a fissure opened up on the far side of the chamber, a cool breeze emanated from the crevice.

"That must be the way out," Furno said. "Come on."

Zero opened his mouth to say something, but Furno had already began walking away. With a defeated huff, Zero followed his friend out of the dungeon.

-Resistance-

It was nighttime by the time the duo finally escaped the mystery dungeon. The moon was high in the sky and the stars shone brightly against the inky darkness. The crevice, as it happened, out into the forest that they had seen from the cliff face. The mist they had seen had dissipated, leaving the night clear, though the veil of trees blocked out most of the natural light.

The duo also noticed that it was significantly colder. Not as cold as Frigid Cavern, but still cold enough to cause Zero to shiver. Furno did not have the same problem, being a fire type and all, but he did notice Zero's plight. Deciding that it was a good time to set up camp, Furno lit a fire to help keep his fighting type companion warm, something Zero was incredibly grateful for.

The duo sat in silence around their campfire, eating the apples that had been provided to them. Furno had also set up a couple of 'beds', which were more like piles of hay, that had also been in their pack. While they were nowhere near as comfortable as their beds back as the Latios Division, but it was better than sleeping on the ground.

An awkward tension permeated the air between the duo. It was clear to Zero that there was still some left over tension from their quarrel back in Ironside Cave. Despite reconciling, Zero still felt frustration simmering within the Chimchar, directed towards the former human, and Zero did not know how to address it. In the end, Zero just kept his mouth shut, instead focusing on his right paw.

After a while, Furno finally glanced up from his apple and looked at Zero with a cautious expression. "Is your paw alright?" he asked, startling Zero with his sudden breaking of the silence.

"Y-Yeah. It's fine," Zero answered, glancing back down at his paw, clenching and unclenching it. "It's just a little stiff."

"Hmm," Furno hummed sagely. "It will probably be like that for a while considering how badly you had damaged it. In all honesty, if it wasn't for that reviver seed, you probably wouldn't have been able to use that paw again."

"Well that's a happy thought," Zero grumbled sarcastically, falling onto his back, his arms splayed out. "What do you think those orbs are?" he asked suddenly, momentarily catching Furno off guard.

"Huh?"

"The orbs," Zero repeated. "The ones we got from defeating Regirock, Regice, and Registeel."

"Oh. I don't know," Furno confessed.

"Me neither," Zero said. "They're obviously important in some way, considering Angela sent the other two with us, then teleported us to where the third one was, but I can't figure out why. What was Angela's purpose in having us have them. Are there other regis that we should worry about?"

"Just Regigigas, I think," Furno answered.

Zero hummed, remembering the towering figure that Monty had turned into when they first met. He hoped to whatever god there was that they would not have to fight that behemoth. "I guess we'll find out what they're for eventually."

"Yeah," Furno commented distractedly.

Zero frowned at Furno's less than enthusiastic response and turned over to look at his friend. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Furno sighed. "Just a little tired."

"Oh." Zero shifted awkwardly. "Y-You can go to sleep if you want. I can take the first watch."

"Yeah, that's fine," Furno said, immediately shifting to his side, his back facing Zero. "Wake me up in about five hours for my shift."

Zero nodded, not that Furno could see, and went silent. A few seconds later, Furno's tail flame went out, indicating that he was asleep.

Zero waited several minutes, making sure that Furno was in a deep sleep before sighing loudly. His gaze found the partially hidden behind the trees.

 _This whole thing doesn't make any sense,_ Zero thought to himself. _What was the purpose of sending us out here? And what does it have to do with the orbs?_

Zero pulled out the blue orb they had gotten from Regice back in Frigid Cavern and held it up to the fire light. Strangely enough, the orange light did not seem to reach the orb, as if something was physically blocking the light from reaching the orb.

A small frown found its way onto the young Riolu's face as he noted this change, or lack of. After several seconds of examining the blue orb, Zero huffed and returned the orb to his bag. "This is all to confusing," he muttered aloud.

With nothing else to do, Zero allowed his mind to wander to the last words Angela spoke to them before sending them away.

"'To seek the answers of the pure soul, the knight requires the assistance of his young disciples. The hearts of the guardians are needed to open the door to understanding. Make haste young ones. Your protector needs you,'" Zero repeated. "I can only guess that we are the disciples she talked about, but who is the knight?

"And the guardians...did she mean the regis? Is that what the orbs are, their hearts? Ugh!" Zero threw his paws up in frustration before falling onto his hay bed. "None of this makes sense. Why couldn't Angela have just _told_ us what the hell we are supposed to be doing here instead of giving us some cryptic warning and dropping us off in the middle of nowhere!"

Zero gave a muffled shriek of frustration before falling silent, the adrenaline from his rant leaving him. Glancing next to him, Zero was relieved to see that Furno was still asleep and had not heard his rant. Seeing his friend brought yet another wave of melancholic guilt into the emanation Pokémon's heart as he remembered their argument.

"This whole mission has been nothing but a disaster," Zero muttered. "I quite possible ruined a friendship with the first person, or Pokémon, that I met in this world, all because I was being protective. It's not like I don't trust him, I just..." Zero broke off, his gaze becoming slightly clouded. "I just want Furno to be safe. He gave me purpose, he is my life. I have to protect him."

Zero gave Furno's slumbering form a final look before rising to his feet and looked towards the trees. "Even if he resents me for it. Even if he hates me for it, I will protect him," Zero promised. With that, Zero scaled a tree and perched himself on a branch in order to get a better view of the area. He never once noticed Furno's flame reignite halfway through his rant.

-Resistance-

As soon as the sun came out, the duo decided it was time to head out. They swiftly packed up their things, put out the fire, and consulted their map. They immediately found the path they needed to take and set out, just as a heavy fog began to creep through the forest.

The fog obscured much of the surrounding area, making it difficult to see where Zero and Furno were going. On several separate occasions, the duo found themselves tripping over exposed roots and hit by low hanging branches. Unfortunately, as they were not in a mystery dungeon, their orbs that could be cancel out weather effects could not be used.

As they continued to walk, Zero let out another jaw breaking yawn. The Riolu had not gotten a lot of sleep during the night, though not for lack of trying. When it came time to wake Furno for his shift, Zero, while slightly reluctant, had attempted to fall asleep, but the swirl of thoughts kept him up.

"You're still tired?" Furno questioned, cocking a brow.

"Yeah, I couldn't fall asleep," Zero confessed. "I kept thinking about the orbs we got from the regis and what Angela said."

"Oh?" Furno asked, silently asking that Zero continue.

"Well, Angela said that we need to get the hearts of the guardians right? Well, what if the orbs we got from the regis are the guardians' hearts?"

Furno frowned in contemplation. "That...would make sense," he said after a minute of silence. "That would explain why Angela sent us to Ironside Cave and sent the other two orbs with us. But what do they mean? What are they for?"

"I have no idea," Zero sighed, ducking under a branch. "I'm also confused about who the 'knight' she was referring to or why we need to help them."

Furno hummed noncommittally and kept walking. Zero's shoulders sagged at the brush off from his friend. He knew thing would not go back to the way things were overnight, but he had hoped.

 _At least he's talking to me,_ Zero thought to himself.

The duo continued to press on through the forest, occasionally consulting the map to make sure that they were still going the right way. Several hours later, when the sun was at its highest peak, the fog had finally began to disperse, becoming a thin mist. Unimpeded, the duo broke through the treeline and came upon a large clearing.

A medium sized lake stood between the duo and the trees on the opposite side. A series of bright blue and pink wild flowers grew along the bank, giving the lake a majestic and mysterious appearance when coupled with the fog. Several fallen trees and moss covered logs framed the lake, some even dipping past the water's surface.

"Wow," Furno gaped, his eyes shining as he took in the scene in front of him. "It's beautiful."

"It's also the end of the road," Zero said, looking down at their map.

"Huh?" Furno spun around and snatched the map out of Zero's paws.

Not at all nonplussed, Zero stepped up behind Furno and pointed at the map. "See," he said, pointing to where drawn out path ended. "It stops right here."

"Why the heck does it stop here?" Furno asked frustratedly, shoving the map back into their pack, almost knocking Zero to the ground.

"Who knows," Zero said, shrugging and looking around. "Maybe there's something here we're meant to find?"

Furno groaned, slumping over slightly in defeat and annoyance. "That's just great. We're stuck in some random place with no idea what we're here for!" he groaned loudly. "Now what do we do."

"I don't-" Zero's words died in his throat as his entire body tensed. His turned towards the trees, his eyes shifting rapidly.

"What is it?" Furno asked, getting in a fighting stance upon seeing his teammate becoming tense.

Zero did not respond right away, his focus entirely on the forest. After a few seconds and nothing occurring, Zero relaxed marginally and turned back to Furno. "Sorry," he said. "I thought I heard something."

Furno stared blankly at Zero for a second before sighing, "Really Zero? Your getting paranoid out here."

Zero chuckled sheepishly. He was about to say something, when a blue blur shot out from the forest and smashed into Furno, sending the fire type flying.

"Furn-AHHH" At the same time, something exploded out of the lake and struck Zero hard enough to send him flying into a tree.

Zero head smashed against the trunk with a sickening crack, immediately causing darkness to creep into the edges of Zero's vision. Before the Riolu could even fall back to the ground, something, or someone, grabbed him by the throat and slammed Zero into the tree again, pinning him.

Disoriented and in pain, Zero could only grab weakly at the appendage holding him. Zero tried to focus on whatever was holding him, but everything was still fuzzy. It did not help that a second later, the thing holding him in place shook him, causing Zero's head to bounce off of the tree trunk again. As Zero was reeling from the second hit, he felt something sharp press against his throat.

"Who are you?!" a voice demanded. When Zero did not answer, he was slammed into the tree again, the sharp object pressed against the Riolu's throat dug into his flesh, drawing blood and forcing Zero to raise his head.

"I won't ask again!" the voice growled threateningly. "Who the hell are you and...why..." The voice trailed off and whatever was pressing into his throat disappeared. Almost tentatively this time, the voice spoke again. "Zero?"

The former human frowned, vaguely recognizing the voice. Slowly the fog lifted from around his mind and his eyes came into focus, allowing him to see a very familiar ninja Pokémon.

"Stride?"

 **Author's Note:**

Hey everybody, AuraFighter here. I just wanted to let you all know that Resistance will be on temporary hiatus until late October or early November so that I can finish the last four to five chapters of Stardust. Thank you for all your continued support and feel free to leave a review.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

A Surprising Encounter

"Zero?" Stride asked, a bewildered look on his face.

"Stride?" Zero asked.

"Stride?!" Furno exclaimed from his position on the ground several feet away. Awkwardly turning his head, Zero saw that Furno was pinned to the ground by a familiar Lucario.

"Orion?" Zero questioned.

"Zero?" the Lucario questioned, seeing the Riolu Stride was holding.

"Furno?" Stride gaped, seeing the Chimchar.

Silence ensued, as the four resistance members just stared at each other in absolute shock. Several minutes went by with the quartet simply staring at one another, before Orion recovered his wits. With a slight cough and an awkward chuckle, he said, "Well, since we're all done with introductions..."

This was enough to snap Stride out of his revere. He dropped Zero to the ground, and took a step back. Orion followed the Greninja's lead and got off of Furno, offering a paw to the fire type who gratefully accepted it.

Zero got off of the ground, massaging his throat, shivering as his fingers felt the warm and sticky blood that continued to drip down his neck. He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when he saw Stride was glaring at him.

"What are you doing here?" Stride demanded. His voice almost straining to remain calm, but there was a clear underlining tone of anger present.

Zero unconsciously shivered, the anger emanating from the Greninja. Never before, not even when Zero admitted to have learning Final Gambit, had Stride been this angry at Zero. The Riolu had a glimpse this kind of anger when Stride exploded on Seth, but he had never been directly subjected to it. It was paralyzing.

Normally, Zero could block out the emotions of others, but Stride's emotions were too powerful and Zero, after being slammed into a tree several times and cut, was too stunned to put up proper mental protections. Stride's emotions slammed into Zero, flooding his mind with pure fury towards him. It felt like Zero was being physically pushed down, forced to be made insignificant under the Greninja's raging emotions. It was no longer Stride standing before him, but a predator ready to strike at any moment.

"Well?!" Stride demanded again, his anger breaking through his forced calm. "How did you find us? Have you been following us?!"

"No! We didn't-!" Furno tried to interject, but Stride paid the chimp Pokémon no mind. His attention was fully on the now visibly trembling Riolu.

"That's it, isn't it? You were following us from the beginning!" Stride shouted, sounding slightly deranged. "You expressly ignored my warnings, and have been following us! Did the tribunal put you up to it-or!"

Stride!" Orion cut of the Greninja, placing a firm paw on the water-dark type's shoulder. Stride whirled around, a scathing comment on his lips, but Orion beat him to it.

"You're scaring him," he said simply.

Stride turned back around and seemed to see Zero for the first time. The Riolu was violently shaking, his legs looking as if they would give out at any second. His arms were wrapped around himself in a weak attempt to calm himself. Red eyes were wide, pupils contracted in fear.

Immediately, an overwhelming guilt flashed in the Greninja's eyes at the fear permeating from his student. He took a step forward, about to apologize, but the Riolu took a step back, his eyes growing even wider. Stride winced at seeing his student's reaction and a step back.

"Zero, I need you to calm down and look at me," Orion said, keeping his voice steady. Zero looked to have not heard the aura Pokémon's voice, his fear filled eyes still locked on the Greninja. With no other option, Orion reached out and grabbed the Riolu's shoulders, forcing the emanation Pokémon to look at him.

"Calm down," Orion said, both soothingly and forcefully. "You are safe, no one is trying to hurt you. You need to focus on blocking out all external emotions and control your own. Can you do that for me?"

Zero just stared for several seconds before he slowly nodded. Swallowing thickly, Zero closed his eyes, and forcibly tried to slow down his breathing, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth. After a couple of minutes of this, the fear that had been leaking out from the Riolu receded, and he looked visibly calmer. A few more seconds later, the tension left the Riolu and he opened his eyes.

"Better?" Orion questioned.

Zero nodded, feeling slightly ashamed over losing control as he did. "Sorry."

"You have nothing to apologize for," Stride said, before Orion could speak. "I should not have reacted the way I did. I let my own emotions get the better of me and I took it out on you and for that, I am sorry."

Zero nodded, but he was unconvinced. He was supposed to be a leader, yet he was cowed by someone being angry. How was he supposed to lead when all it would take to beat him was a glare? How could he protect Furno if he was so weak?

As these conflicting thoughts warred within Zero, Stride took the chance to glance at Furno. The Chimchar had not moved from his spot, even when Zero was breaking down. He looked concerned for his friend, but there was some hidden tension that seemed to hide beneath the surface of his worry. Something that kept him from rushing to Zero's side as he normally would do.

Stride was broken from his musings when Orion suddenly clapped his paws together. "Okay! Now that all that's settled, let's get to the main point."

"Yes," Stride said, putting aside his concerns regarding Furno for a later time. "Now onto the question, what are you two doing here?"

-Resistance-

"I see," Stride said, having listened to the duo's tale. "So Angela teleported you to Ironside Cave."

"Where you fought _another_ regi," Orion added, lifting a skeptical brow. "By yourselves."

"It's true!" Furno said defensively. "We even got an orb from it when we beat it!"

"Okay, okay! No need to get worked up!" Orion said, raising his paws in a placating manner, though there was still disbelief in his eyes.

" _Anyway_ " Stride interrupted, glaring at Stride, "you two shouldn't be here. Why didn't you head back when you landed?"

"Well...we were closer to the destination marked on the map then we were to the base," Furno murmured, blushing lightly.

"If you were closer to a cliff than home, would you jump?" Stride questioned bitingly.

Furno squeaked and ducked his head, effectively cowed. Zero shifted uncomfortably, wondering why they did not head back in the first place.

"It felt important that," Zero finally spoke up.

"Really?" Stride laughed rather cruelly. "It was important that you follow an unknown path to who knows what?"

"Well, we didn't think it would be dangerous since it was Angela that sent us there," Zero said, crossing his arms defensively.

"And yet you were forced to fight a regi," Stride countered, causing Zero's mouth to shut with an audible click. "That what I thought."

"Cut them some slack, Stride," Orion soothed. "They're just kids."

"My point exactly," Stride growled, rounding on Orion. "They shouldn't be out here in the first place. It's way too dangerous!"

"Stride, they're both capable of dealing with danger. If what they said is true, they fought Registeel by themselves. There's no need to worry about them."

"Didn't you just say that they were children?" Stride questioned.

"Yes, in terms of the fact that they are bound to make mistakes," Orion answered. "That doesn't mean that they're helpless."

Stride eyed the Lucario critically, his eyes holding annoyance and disbelief. "Whatever the case, they can't be here," Stride said, turning away from the Lucario to face Team Dawn Breaker. "It's too dangerous for either of them to be here."

"But-" Furno's head shot up, an argument on the tip of his tongue, but the words died before they left his mouth when Stride pinned him with a glare.

"No 'buts'. You shouldn't be here in the first place and I'm sure your teammates are worried about you two," Stride said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Zero felt a stab of guilt at Stride's words. The entire time he and Furno had been out in the field, not once had he thought about Quill and the others. They were probably going out of their minds worrying about them. However, no matter how concerned he was about the state of his friends, something else was bothering Zero.

"But Stride, if you take us back, the tribunal will..." Zero trailed off, seeing Stride's glare move to him. It was clear that Stride knew exactly what Zero was going to say and he did not want Zero to say it. Unfortunately, Orion had no such misgivings.

"The tribunal would what?" Orion asked suspiciously, looking between Zero and Stride. "What did he mean, Stride?"

Stride cast one last annoyed glare at Zero before sighing in resignation. "He means that there will be a good chance that I'll be expelled from the resistance upon our return," Stride answered.

"What? Why?" Orion demanded.

"...I didn't have permission to go on the endeavor," Stride almost whispered, sounding like a child forced to admit their guilt.

Orion gaped at the Greninja, his expression incredulous. He opened and closed his mouth several times, seemingly unable to come up with a response. After several minutes of Orion simply gaping at the ninja Pokémon, the Lucario spoke. "Please tell me you're joking."

"..." Stride's silence was answer enough.

"Oh, this is bad," Orion said, letting his head fall into his paws. "This is really bad, Stride! We _both_ could be kicked out of the resistance for this! Did you even think about the consequences of so blatantly disregarding the rulings of the higher ups?!"

"Of course I did," Stride snapped, "but this is so much more important than the rulings of the tribunal. I care more of helping this world then listening to the prattling of three elders who have never seen actual battle!"

"And how will you help the world if you're kicked out of the resistance?" Orion growled.

"The resistance is nothing more than a means to an end," Stride growled, surprising Orion and Team Dawn Breaker. "My goal is to stop the emperor and bring peace to this world. If I have to do that without the resistance, then so be it!"

Stride's declaration left the trio of listeners stunned, especially Team Dawn Breaker. Since they had been brought to the resistance by Stride, the Greninja had spoken nothing but praises of the organization to Zero and Furno. He spoke with love and compassion for the resistance and everything it stood for and to here Stride speak about it in such away...

"Is that really all the resistance is to you?" Orion asked, his voice wavering as he tried to remain calm.

Stride looked away from the Lucario. "My desire is too rid the world of the emperor. That is why I joined the resistance, plain and simple. Joining made my desire easier, but I am not opposed to doing things the hard way if it comes to that."

"And what about your teammates?!" Orion demanded. "The friends you made in the resistance. Are _they_ a means to an end as well?!"

"...It doesn't matter," Stride responded, his voice clipped, his tone dead. "Besides, why are you concerned? The whole reason I didn't tell you was so that you had an excuse as to why you went along with my plan. You can just say that you were brought here under false pretenses."

"But that-! That's-! That's not the point!" Orion snapped. "You're throwing everything you've worked for...for a _chance_ that you'll find a _clue_ on a myth! How is what you're doing worth any of what you're giving up?!"

"Because it's the only chance we have of stopping the emperor!" Stride roared, whirling around to face Orion. "Because nothing we've done has done anything other than delay the emperor's advancement! Because, if we want to win, then we _need_ the silver soul!"

The two older Pokémon glared at one another, both of them having forgotten the two younger resistance members standing at their side, both of them staring up at the duo in shock. The older Pokémon continued to glare at one another before Stride broke eye contact first. "If you don't want to continue on, then so be it. You can take these two back to the Latios Division, because I don't have the time. I need to save this world."

With that, the Greninja walked past Orion, and the stunned Team Dawn Breaker, leaving the clearing without so much as a backwards glance.

Silence fell upon the clearing at Stride's departure. It seemed that neither Orion nor Team Dawn Breaker react. All three of them could only stare at the place Stride had left, Orion glaring. Zero felt a smidgen of hurt lance through him at Stride's final words. It felt like the ninja Pokémon had dismissed Zero and Furno as if they were not even worth his notice.

After a few minutes, Orion sighed, the tension leaving his body. "Dammit."

"What was that?" Furno asked to no one, his eyes still wide. "Why was he acting like that?"

Zero cringed, feeling the desperation coming from the Chimchar. He too took Stride's dismissal personally. Stride had been a source of inspiration to the both of them and for him to go and dismiss them like that...

It hurt.

"Don't take what he said personally, Furno," Orion soothed, crouching to one knee and placing a reassuring paw on the young fire type's shoulder. "Stride's just been going through a stressing time, and now I see to what extent. I'm sure both of you mean a great deal to him, and so do his teammates and the resistance."

Furno nodded, his eyes a little misty. "What happens now? Are you going to take us back?" Furno asked.

Orion sighed. "I'm not sure..." He glanced at Zero before looking back to Furno in contemplation. "I can't really afford to leave Stride while he's like this, he might do something reckless, and I can't just let you two wander around days away from the nearest division..."

Orion stroked his chin in thought. After a minute of deliberation, Orion huffed in defeat and stood up. "I guess I'll have to take you two with me."

"Are you sure that's okay?" Furno asked worriedly. "Won't Stride be upset?"

"He's already upset," Orion said with a dismissive wave. "Besides, you two are capable of fighting whatever we may encounter with the two of us there, right?"

Both Zero and Furno looked at one another, gauging the other's reaction. A second later, Furno turned away with an almost unnoticeable huff. Zero tried to hide the pain that Furno's act caused him, but Orion noticed it. However, instead of saying anything, he simply nodded.

"Okay then. We should hurry and catch up to Stride before he gets too far ahead."

Both younger Pokémon nodded, though neither of them looked at the other. Orion frowned at the scene, but once again refused to say anything, instead choosing to make his way towards the path Stride had taken, both Zero and Furno following along.

-Resistance-

As it turned out, Stride did not give much of a reaction upon seeing Zero and Furno arrive with Orion, though he did direct a short glare towards Orion when they arrived. Zero was both relieved and hurt by this as the water-dark type had, once again, looked past both him and Furno.

As the quartet began to travel, the forest gave way to a dense, green jungle. Trees became larger and more diverse with vibrant moss covering the majority of their bark. Bright flowers, ranging from pinks to blues, blossomed from the vines that hung from the canopy.

After several hours of walking in silence, a light fog fell upon the jungle, the sun beginning to fall past the treeline. Soon, the sky was dark, the stars the only light source, making it even more difficult to see which way the group was going.

Orion proposed that the group set up camp for the night, but Stride was very much against the idea. He claimed that they were close to the ruins and could make it to them by day break if they kept their current pace. Orion eventually put his foot down after two more hours of walking when the fog had become particularly dense and everyone, save for Orion, was tripping constantly. Stride begrudgingly relented and allowed the set up of camp.

The group was soon centered around a small campfire, lit for the purpose of sight rather than warmth. The chittering of the various bug type Pokémon intensified to new heights with the setting of the sun. The sound was not deafening, but it was loud to make its presence known to the group.

"I want to leave at first light so it would be best if we sleep now," Stride said curtly. "Orion, you have first watch. Wake me in a few hours."

Without another word, Stride took a position against a tree and fell asleep.

Orion exhaled loudly, rolling his eyes at the Greninja. He then turned to Zero and Furno, an apologetic smile on his lips. "You two better get some sleep. Knowing Stride, he'll wake us all up before the sun even comes out."

Furno nodded and without so much as a glance towards Zero, he curled up by the fire. Not even a minute later, his flame went out, signifying that he was asleep.

Orion chuckled at seeing how fast the young fire type fell asleep. It was clear that the chimp Pokémon was running on fumes up until that point. It came as no surprise that he fell asleep so quickly. It was a surprise, however, to see that Zero was still awake.

Frowning, Orion observed the young fighting type, noting the forlorn expression on his face when he looked at Furno. "Zero?"

The Riolu jolted violently, seemingly having forgotten that Orion was still awake. "O-Orion!" he squeaked, before coughing. "Wh-What's up?"

"'What's up?'" Zero winced upon hearing his words repeated. Orion just chuckled. "I could ask you the same thing."

"Wh-What do you mean?" Zero inwardly cursed at his stuttering.

"I think you know exactly what I mean," Orion responded slyly.

"I...I just..." Zero's eyes shifted awkwardly, seeking some kind of escape from the conversation. "I was just...think about how Stride was acting.

Orion quirked a brow. "Okay then. If that's how you want to play it, what about Stride's behavior were you thinking about?"

"Um...just how angry he was," Zero said. "And-uh-how much he...affected me?"

"Ah, you mean when he was shouting at you," Orion guessed.

"Yep!" Zero said, a tad to eagerly. "I mean, yeah. I never...I mean...I've had other Pokémon angry at me before, but I never...froze like that."

Zero curled into himself, wrapping his arms around his legs. His head bowed in shame. "When we fought Spikefang and even Hypnos, they were angry, incredibly so when we fought against them, but I never..."

"You never froze like you did when Stride was upset," Orion finished, earning a nod from Zero. "There's no need to be ashamed of your reaction. In reality, what you felt was a result of a lapse of control on Stride's part, and I mean other than his own anger."

"Huh?" Zero questioned confusedly.

"As a Riolu, you are incredibly sensitive to others emotions as they filter through the world's natural aura, as I'm sure you know." At Zero's nod, Orion continued. "Well, because of that, you are also vulnerable to intent."

"Intent?"

"Hmm," Orion hummed in affirmation. "Intent is a skill where one will take hold of a single emotion, be it anger, sadness, elation, or anything in between. By focusing on this one emotion, and thinking of nothing else, a Pokémon can then release that emotion in the form of a shock wave, forcibly imposing their own emotions on their target."

"And they can force their target to feel what they feel?" Zero asked. "That sounds a lot like what I do if I don't control myself."

"That is very true. In fact, the concept behind Intent originates from Riolu and Lucario, or, more specifically, their ability to project their emotions," Orion explained. "However, Intent is much more potent than simply projecting you emotions."

"How so?" Zero questions.

"Well, Intent _forces_ your emotions onto another. This can stun a Pokémon to the point where they can't react, or they are so stricken with fear of the other that they collapse," Orion said. "However, if one were to use a lighter emotions, like happiness or serenity, it can diffuse a violent situation or even rally an ally."

"Wow," Zero gaped. "So what I felt was Stride's Intent?"

"Yes," Orion confirmed. "Intent that was brought on by weeks of sleep deprivation and mounting stress. He inadvertently unleashed his Intent upon you without meaning to."

Zero was stunned. The potential of Intent was borderline infinite. One could literally end a battle without throwing a single punch. He then frowned in thought. "But how do you protect yourself from Intent?"

"Hmm?" Orion hummed. "You don't really need to know how to defend against Intent now. Very few Pokémon actually know how to use Intent, typically the more experienced members of the resistance and generals in the emperor's army. The chances of you facing against any of those kinds of Pokémon are astronomical."

"But there's still a chance of it happening," Zero argued. "If I can't fend against that kind of ability, how will I be able to protect...Furno..."

Zero's voice petered out towards the end of his argument, his voice becoming non-existent. A fresh wave of guilt over what occurred in Ironside Cave washing over the Riolu.

"And here we get to the root of what has _truly_ been on your mind," Orion states, a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. "Something happened between the two of you before you encountered us, didn't it?"

"How'd you-" Zero sighed in defeat. "Yes. We...got into an...argument of sorts."

"Oh?" Orion asked, prompting Zero to continue.

Zero appeared conflicted for a moment before finally releasing a pent up puff of air. Taking a deep breath, Zero launched into a retelling of the events that occurred in Ironside Cave.

"I see, so you let your protectiveness towards Furno become too much for him to take," Orion said, closing his eyes in thought.

"Yeah," Zero muttered depressingly. "Now things are tense between us. I'm scared that we won't be able to recover from it."

Orion nodded sagely. "Protectiveness, while a good trait to have, can be negative at the same time. Too much of it can make lead to you appearing overbearing and stifling. Furno probably thinks that you don't trust him and is now seeking to prove to you that he can handle himself without your interference. This would explain his recklessness during your battles."

"I already know all that," Zero said, hardly holding back an annoyed growl. "He said as much in the dungeon. What I want to know is how to fix this!"

"Calm down, calm down," Orion said placatingly. "To be honest, the best thing you can do is give Furno his space. Show him that you do trust him by allowing him to fight his own battles and only help him when he really needs it, not when _you_ think he needs it."

Orion opened his eyes and looked at Zero with a empathetic look. "It will be difficult, but I'm sure the two of you will be back to acting as you have in the past."

"Okay," Zero agreed, albeit reluctantly. He then yawned, showing his own tiredness.

Orion laughed at the sight. "You should get some rest, Zero. You'll need your strength for tomorrow's trek."

Zero gave another yawn and nodded his head in compliance. He curled up into a tight ball before the fire and fell asleep, he concerns regarding Furno momentarily abated.

-Resistance-

True to Orion's words, Stride had them all up and ready to go before the sun had even risen. Ignoring the sleepy grumbles of his compatriots, Stride pushed the group onward. By the time the sun had risen, the quartet had already been walking for two hours in relative silence. At first, Furno tried to engage the Greninja in conversations, but he only got curt one worded answers or no response at all so Furno stopped trying.

As the day progressed, the group continued their trek through the jungle, only stopping every once in a while when Orion bullied Stride into allowing a quick break. Each time, Stride would begrudgingly allow the break and would glare at the Lucario while tapping his foot impatiently until they left. Throughout all of it, Zero kept to Orion's advice and gave Furno space, though the Riolu would send the fire type sad glances when he was sure Furno was not looking.

When the sun had reached its highest point, and the air had become heavy and humid, the landscape that began to change. The trees became fewer and the bushes and foliage became sparse. A more definite path made itself known as more vegetation was cleared. An occasional block of concrete could be seen every few feet alongside the path. Soon the group came to a large hill overlooking more of the jungle.

When they reached the hill, Stride quickly raced to the pinnacle of the hill and looked out over the jungle. "There!" he exclaimed, a step back from excited, pointing out over the hill. "The ruins are there!"

Hearing the exclamation, Zero, Furno, and Orion raced up the hill next to the Greninja. Looking out to where the ninja Pokémon was pointing, the trio saw what had gotten Stride so excited. Off in the distance were what looked like a series of stone structures. Even from the distance, they could see that the area was in rather bad shape.

"That's it. That's our destination," Stride said, his voice filled with relief, eagerness, and, above all, hope. "We finally made it. The Ruins of Reminiscence!"

 **Author's Notes:**

Wow, it's really been two months since I last updated. Sorry about that, everyone. Between finishing Stardust and final's week at college, I just lost track of time, but I'm back now. I probably won't be able to update as often as I usually do, but you won't have to wait two months. Anyway, thank you all for waiting and your continued support. Have a happy holiday's!


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

The Ruins of Reminiscence

There was a certain bounce to the Greninja's step as the group made their way towards the ruins. Stride had been practically giddy the second he saw the ruins in the distance. He had all but jumped up and down in excitement as they traversed the jungle towards their destination. It was a far cry from the sullen and waspish Greninja that had been present just hours before hand and, while it was a pleasant change, it was slightly off putting seeing the Greninja act as such.

 _This is seriously weird,_ Zero thought to himself as he swore he heard the water-dark type humming a tune. _I get that he's happy that we made it, but this seems to be an extreme reaction._

Glancing at his other two traveling companions, Zero could see Furno had a similarly unnerved expression when he looked at Stride. Orion too had cocked a brow at the Greninja's antics initially, before a looked of understanding came over his face. Currently, the Lucario looked at Stride with an amused expression. Zero frowned at that.

As long as Zero had known the leader of Team Surge the Greninja had never been one to wear his emotions on his sleeve. Sure he laughed and joked around, but he was a relatively calm and collected individual, which was why it was so surprising, and scary, to see Stride blow up on both Seth and him. Now, seeing the Greninja acting so...silly, it was like seeing an entirely different Pokémon.

"I wonder why," Zero muttered aloud.

"What was that?" Orion asked, causing the Riolu to jump.

"N-Nothing!" Zero yelped, earning strange looks from everyone. He chuckled awkwardly, scratching the back of his head and trying to appear innocent. Eventually the trio turned away from the young Riolu, Stride going back to his humming. With the attention once more away from the Riolu, Zero released a silent breath.

 _Well that was awkward,_ Zero internally sighed. _Anyway, back to my previous thought, why is Stride acting so giddy?_

Zero stared at the back of the Greninja's head, trying to come up with some reason for the Greninja's uncharacteristic demeanor. Not coming up with anything, Zero allowed his mental shields to fall and focused on Stride and his emotions.

As always, Zero visibly winced as he was immediately flooded with emotions not his own, but powered through and focused on Stride. Zero instantly felt the bright and almost overpowering happiness of the Greninja, which was not unexpected. Pushing further, Zero felt a level of relief flooding the ninja Pokémon. At first, Zero likened this to Stride's relief to this being the end of their journey, but it felt deeper than that.

Frowning, Zero focused more on that feeling of relief. It did not feel like the simple relief of a relatively current event, but it was more like the relief over something that had been plaguing Stride for a long time. It did not make a whole lot of sense, but, somehow, Zero understood it. What he did not understand was why Stride was feeling such...relief...

Zero could have slapped himself. Of course Stride was relieved, the ruins represented a definite answer to what Stride had been searching for for who knows how long. The Silver Soul.

Stride had said that the secrets of the Silver Soul could be found within the ruins and from what Zero knew, the Silver Soul had been something that Stride had been seeking for years now. It was the entire reason that he had been Shrouded Forest when he had met Zero and Furno. It was his entire reason for joining the resistance.

 _That explains this relief,_ Zero reasoned, looking at the ground in contemplation. _The Silver Soul had been Stride's white whale (whatever that analogy meant), the thing that he had based his entire life around. It made sense that he would be relieved that he was this close to an answer. But wait..._

Zero once more raised his head and looked at the Greninja. _Everyone always said that the Silver Soul is just a myth, that there was no proof that it existed. What if they were right and the Silver Soul is just a myth._

Zero took in the Greninja's happiness and, instead of feeling happiness himself, he only felt bitter sadness. _I hope for your sake, Stride, that we find something there._

"This is it! We've made it!" Stride exclaimed happily.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Zero looked away from the Greninja and noticed a large archway in front of them, or the remnants of an archway. Now it was just half of one with moss growing over the stone. Looking past the arch, Zero could see multiple stone buildings in various states of decay and ruin.

"The Ruins of Reminiscence," Orion spoke in awe. "We made it."

"Come on!" Stride said, hardly keeping himself from bolting inside, though he did enter the ruins before getting a response from his companions.

Orion sighed exasperatedly before signaling for Zero and Furno to follow him as he entered the ruins after Stride.

-Resistance-

As it turned out, the Ruins of Reminiscence was not a single building, but an entire town. Abandoned homes and buildings were scattered about in an elongated 'U'. The buildings were all worn and heavily damaged. The wooden supports of the buildings had all decayed away, leaving the structures to fall in on themselves. The remaining stone had a very weathered appearance, large cracks covering the stone like a blanket, and moss grew over it.

Wild grass and other plants grew in random places, showing that there was no upkeep. However, upon closer inspection, the grass seemed to be less wild towards the center of the of buildings. In fact, a similar path leading further through the ruined town.

"Are these...are these the Ruins of Reminiscence?" Furno asked, looking around. "It seems rather..."

"Empty," Zero finished, earning a nod from Furno.

"Yes, there's no doubts," Stride responded, crouching before one of the ruined buildings and pulling out a badly damaged book. "These are the Ruins of Reminiscence."

"So what exactly are we looking for here?" Zero asked, taking a cue from Stride and moving towards one of the piles of rubble that used to be buildings.

"We aren't looking for anything here," Stride said as he quickly glossed through the book he was holding.

"Huh?" Furno questioned.

"The Ruins of Reminiscence themselves are not the true objective of this trip," Stride explained, still not looking up from the book. "The ruins hold something far more valuable that mere stone."

"You're talking about the temple," Orion said.

Stride nodded in response, tossing the book he had been reading. "That's right. The temple is out true destination."

"Wait, hold on!" Furno interrupted. "What's all this about a temple?"

"The Temple of Memoria," Stride said. "The temple used by the shamans to gaze into the past."

"But I thought that was the purpose of the ruins," Zero said.

"No, these ruins are simply the remnants of the town that was near the temple. Where the shamans lived," Orion clarified. "The town itself was called Reminiscence."

"...you know, the way you kept saying 'Ruins of Reminiscence', it made this place seem a lot more important," Zero deadpanned, a similar expression on Furno's face.

Stride just chuckled in response. "I apologize for that. Our true goal is the Temple of Memoria."

"So, what do you expect to find in the temple?" Furno asked.

"I'm not sure," Stride said, beginning to walk the path that led out of the ruins and back into the jungle. "Hopefully something pertaining to the Silver Soul."

"Wait, what do you mean 'you don't know'?" Zero questioned. "You must have _some_ idea. I mean, haven't other Pokémon explored the temple for themselves?"

"No."

"No?" Zero asked, confused by Stride's response..

"No. No one has explored the temple before," Stride clarified, not looking back at the Riolu as he spoke. "The only reports we have on the temple come from old texts that we have found over the years."

"What?!" Furno exclaimed. "How has no one explored the temple after all this time?!"

"I can answer that," Orion jumped in. "You see, about a century ago, around the time the last of the shamans died out, the temple sealed itself."

"Sealed itself?" Zero asked.

"That's right," Orion confirmed. "Many have tried to get into the temple, some going as far as attacking the structure itself, but the temple hardly received a single scratch."

"Wow," Furno said in awe. "So all this time, no one's been inside?"

"That's right," Stride said. "The temple is still a mystery today."

"So why do you think that we can get answers when no one else can?" Furno asked.

Stride did not answer right away. He kept walking down the path, not even glancing at the Chimchar. Just as it seemed that he would not answer, the Greninja replied with one simple word. "Faith."

Furno opened his mouth, most likely about to say something contradictory, but seemed to think better of himself and closed his mouth. While the chimp Pokémon was content at remaining silent, Zero was less convinced.

"Stride?" The Greninja grunted, indicating that he was listening. "What exactly did that tome they have at the Groudon Division say?"

"The gist of what they translated was that the shamans were in possession of an item that could gaze into the souls of any Pokémon it comes in contact with. Believing that the item to be too dangerous for anyone to possess this item, the shamans hid it within the temple," Stride explained.

"So you think that the Silver Soul is someone's actual soul and you want the item so you can see into other Pokémon's souls?" Zero asked.

Stride hummed in affirmation and nodded his head. "That's right."

"But...can't Phoebe do that?" Zero asked, thinking back to the Mismagius Stride had taken him and Furno to when they first joined the resistance. "I mean, that's what she does, right? Look into Pokémon's souls and determine if they have the Silver Soul?"

"...yes, that is the reason she resides within the Latios Division," Stride mumbled. Zero frowned when he detected a hint of uncertainty within the Greninja.

"Then...why get something else that does the same thing as her?" Zero asked.

"..." Stride remained silent, his expression giving nothing away. Frowning, Zero attempted to read the Greninja's emotions, but was stunned when he felt nothing coming from him.

 _Is he, suppressing his emotions?!_ Zero practically shouted in his mind, his eyes going wide. _I didn't even think that was possible..._

"One can never have too much of a good thing," Stride said after a while, surprising Zero. "Even if we already possess the means to find the Silver Soul, having a second means will only benefit us."

"That's true..." Zero mumbled.

"Not to mentions that this item may very well be able to see into more than one soul at a time," Stride continued. "Because of that, obtaining this item can only do us good. Not to mention, the item itself might give us some clue as to where, or rather, who the Silver Soul resides within." He then turned around, facing Zero for the first time since they started conversing. "Don't you think so, Zero?"

"...I guess so," Zero answered, slightly off put by the blank yet burning look the Greninja was giving him.

"Good," Stride chirped, his expression instantly shifting to one of content. "I'm glad you see the benefits to obtaining such an item."

With a final slightly creepy smile, the Greninja turned away from the Riolu and continued along the path. Orion and Furno both followed after the Greninja, but Zero held back. While Stride's words were most likely meant to reassure the Riolu, Zero was left not only unsatisfied.

 _He seemed like he was trying to convince himself with that speech more than he was me,_ Zero thought. _Not only that, but what was that flicker of uncertainty when he mentioned Phoebe? Is there something he knows that no one else does?_

Zero shook his head and looked back towards his companions and saw they were a considerable ways away, forcing the emanation Pokémon to jog in order to catch up. The entire time, Zero could not help but wonder what would happen if, and possibly _when_ , the Greninja did not find what he was looking for.

-Resistance-

The quartet walked along the beaten path for another half hour before they came upon the temple. The structure itself was big, so big that the group had been able to see the very top of the temple past the trees about fifteen minutes into their walk. Even so, it still shocked Zero to his core when they finally passed through the treeline and saw the temple up close.

The structure, to Zero's best guess, was close to a hundred and fifty feet high and seventy feet around. The building was a light brick red color and looked as if it was split into two parts, a hexagonal base and a rounded dome that had a swirled like design that reminded Zero of an ice cream cone. Both parts seemed to make up half of the entire structure's height with the dome possibly being slightly taller.

Unlike the Ruins of Reminiscence, the stone work on the temple was in surprisingly good condition. Vines and ivy grew along the walls along with clumps of moss towards the bottom, but there was little sign of erosion of the stone. In fact, when Zero moved closer, he could see no sign of wear on the stone.

"That's strange," Zero voicing his opinion aloud. He was so immersed in his observations that he did not notice

"I know what you mean," Orion said, causing Zero to jump in fright.

"Gah!" Zero yelped.

"Sorry about that," Orion chuckled, sounding unrepentant. "Just making an observation."

"What do you mean?" Zero asked after he had calmed his rapidly beating heart.

"You were looking at the stonework, yes?" Orion asked, gaining a nod from the Riolu. "Yeah, funny thing is, the temple's always been like that. Despite it being here for years and years, the temple seems to have no aged."

"How is that?" Zero asked.

"Nobody knows," Orion answered with a nonchalant shrug. "It's a mystery, just like the mystery dungeons themselves."

"Hey, you two!" Stride shouted to Zero and Orion. "Get over here!"

The two fighting types quickly made their way over to the Greninja and Chimchar. Both Pokémon were looking at the temple when Zero and Orion arrived, Stride physically touching the structure. Orion noted this action and frowned. "Do you expect to find something?"

"I'm not sure..." Stride confessed, still not looking away from the temple, "but there has to be something..."

Orion groaned exasperatedly. "Stride, top researchers have scoured this place from top to bottom and found nothing. What could you possibly hope to find?"

Stride did not answer and remained focused on the temple. "There has to be something," he mumbled, more to himself than the trio behind him. "There has to be some way to get in. If it was indeed he shamans that sealed the temple, they would need some way to open it..."

The ninja Pokémon continued to ignore the fighting-steel type as he continued inspect the walls of the temple. He slowly began to move along the walls of the temple, running his hands along the stone, searching for something that could give him a clue.

He then turned to the trio, his expression confused. "Well? What are you all waiting for? Look!" Not even waiting for a response, Stride resumed his search of the temple.

Orion shook his head, a low growl slipping past his lips. Whether or not Stride heard the growl or not was debatable as he gave no indication that he heard Orion and kept searching. Eventually, Orion's shoulders slumped in defeat and he gave a tired huff. He turned to the two younger resistance members and gave them an apologetic look. "Looks like we're going to be here for awhile."

"So...what exactly are we looking for?" Furno asked.

Orion opened his mouth to answer, but Stride beat him to it. "You are looking for anything that seems out of place!" he shouted, not looking away from what he was doing, which was currently knocking on the stone.

Orion glared meaningfully at the oblivious Greninja before turning back to Team Dawn Breaker. "Yes. As Stride said, we are looking for anything that seems strange or out of place."

"What exactly does that mean?" Zero asked.

"No idea," Orion said, earning deadpanned stares from both Zero and Furno. "Hey, hey! Like I said, multiple Pokémon before us have investigated this temple and they didn't find anything of note," he explained. "As it is, I have no idea what we should be looking for, if there is anything to find."

"Well...Stride said that there's something here, so we'll just have to trust him!" Furno resolved. With that, he too began to investigate the temple wall.

"He truly holds Stride in high regard," Orion commented, observing the fire type's fervent investigation.

"Of course he does. We both do," Zero responded, smiling at his friend's behavior, a pang of sadness ebbing its way into his heart.

"There is a difference between respect and adoration," Orion said, a strange note of something in his voice.

Zero turned back to the Lucario who was looking at him with an oddly blank expression. "Would you say I was wrong by saying that Furno adores Stride to the point where he would do whatever he said without question? Even if it seemed unsafe?"

Zero opened his mouth, but no words left him. Orion saw this and nodded. "If your response isn't immediately 'no', then the answer is clear. Furno takes Stride's words as if they were from Arceus themself. In other words, his follows orders without question."

"And what's wrong with that?" Zero said defensively.

"What if Stride ordered him to jump off a cliff?"

"He wouldn't do that!"

"But surely you see my point!" Orion snapped in frustration. "Blind loyalty like what Furno shows to Stride speaks of simple mindedness. He shows no free will and will not grow if he only listens to Stride and never forms opinions of his own. Even you are starting to doubt this mission. I can see it!"

Zero paws curled into tight fists, his gaze locked onto the ground. He did not like Orion speaking of Furno like that. Sure Furno trusted Stride's words, but that was because he has more experience than both of them. Of course he would listen to Stride's words. Even so, with their current mission...

Zero shook his head and glared up at the Lucario. "You're wrong. Furno is fine how he is and I have no reason to doubt him or Stride!"

Not waiting for a response, Zero turned on the spot and marched towards the temple to begin to help with the investigation. He heard Orion mutter something under his breath, but Zero payed him no mind. Even if he had doubts, he would but his trust in both Stride and Furno. With that thought, Zero began his search of the temple, but like Orion had said, there was not much to find.

Stride, Zero, Furno, and even a reluctant Orion searched around the temple for the better part of the day and found nothing. The structure was completely devoid of any buttons, switches, hidden passages, or anything of the sort. The group even checked the surrounding area for any clue of how to get into the temple, but that turned up nothing as well. Furno even attempted to dig under the temple and get in that way, but found that the temple's structure went down an undetermined distance, making it impossible to enter from below.

As the day began to fall away to night, and the sun began its descent past the trees, two of the four members of the group were sitting tiredly a few feet away from the temple. Orion had given up the, in his opinion, _pointless endeavor_ and Furno tired out a little while ago and was taking a break. Stride was still frantically searching the temple walls, but it was a fruitless effort.

"I don't understand it," Stride muttered, his voice unnaturally quiet. "The tome...that item was said to be paramount in locating the Silver Soul, but why can't I get to it..."

Off to the side, Zero, who was still determinedly searching the temple, heard the Greninja's voice. He did not need to tap into his emotion sense to know that Stride was devastated. All the confidence, relief, and excitement that the Greninja had felt upon reaching the ruins and, subsequently, the temple was plummeting, weighed down by the crushing thought that the entire mission was for naught. The feeling of being so close to their goal, only to be stopped just before reaching it, Zero could only imagine the pain this was causing the leader of Team Surge.

Zero sighed, allowing his head to press against the surprisingly cold surface of the temple. Part of him knew that they were unlikely to find what Stride was looking for, but another part of him had hoped that they would find something, if only for Stride's sake, but it looked like Orion was right after all. The temple's secrets would not be discovered by them.

With a shake of his head, Zero pushed off the temple, resolving to head over to Furno and Orion and wait for Stride to finish his own search, when his paw met a soft a sponging surface instead of hard stone. Looking up, Zero noticed that he was touching a set of ivy that was growing along the side of the temple. The fighting type was about to turn away from the ivy when he noticed a splotch of blue against the brick red and underneath the green. Frowning, Zero pushed some of the ivy aside, curious as to what the vegetation was hiding, and gasped at what he saw.

 _Regice?!_

Underneath the small section of ivy that Zero had pulled back, the Riolu indeed could see an old and life size drawing of the ice titan. Curiosity building, Zero was quick to clear the rest of the ivy from the temple, exposing the temple wall. Much to the emanation Pokémon's surprise, along with the odd drawing of Regice, there was also one of Regirock and Registeel.

"What the heck?" Zero said aloud. "Why are these here?"

Zero attention was then drawn to a strange series of symbols carved atop of the images. They looked almost like children scribbles, but were far to clean and sharp to be made by an infant. Strangely enough, each symbol had an eye-like shape in the center of each shape.

" _The hearts of the titan shall open the door to understanding..._ " Zero read aloud. "Why does that sound...familiar..."

Realization slammed into Zero like a Snorlax hitting him with a Take Down. "The orbs!"

"Huh? Zero?" Furno yawned, walking over to the Riolu. "What are you-are those the regis?"

Zero momentarily ignored the Chimchar, in favor of looking at the images, searching for something.

"Aha!" Zero exclaimed, finding what he was looking for. Three large, circular indents located in each of the dotted symbols on the regis' 'faces'.

"Zero?" Furno questioned, confused over the Riolu's strange behavior.

"I think I know how to get it," Zero said excitedly, rushing over to their packs.

"Wait what?" Furno's question fell on deaf ears as Zero was too focused on what he was doing.

"Zero?" Orion asked, seeing the Riolu rush over. "What going on?"

Zero did not respond, too busy rummaging through his and Furno's pack. After several seconds, he cheered loudly as he pulled out the three orbs they had gotten from fighting the regis. Still not responding to Orion's calls, Zero dashed back to the drawings.

"Zero, what's going on?! What do you mean you found a way in?!" Furno practically shouted at his leader.

"The hearts of the guardians," Zero said, barely holding in his excitement. "That's the key!"

"You mean what Angela told us before she teleported us?" Furno asked. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Think about it. We already had two of the orbs when she teleported to Ironside Cave, through a path that was made to make us encounter Registeel. We then get a third orb from Registeel and set out towards Stride, who is in search of this temple, which has these three drawings," Zero explained.

"Yeah..." Furno trailed off, prompting Zero to continue.

"Three drawings that have three indents that are in a perfect spherical shape..."

Furno frowned, the gears in his head almost visibly turning. Half a second later, his eyes widened in realization. "You don't think..."

"I do," Zero said, nodding his head.

"What's going on?" Stride asked, he and Orion walking over to the duo.

"Zero found something," Furno responded, bouncing up and down.

"What?!" Stride demanded, eagerness creeping into his voice.

"These," Zero said, awkwardly holding up the orbs.

"Those orbs you got from the regis?" Stride asked.

"Yep!" Zero said, walking closer to the temple.

Looking up at the drawings, Zero frowned as the indents were higher than he could reach, but he was not deterred. Legs tensing in preparations, Zero kicked off the ground and placed the blue orb into the indent on Regice. Zero repeated this action twice more until all three orbs were in their rightful place.

"They fit!" Furno cheered.

"But shouldn't they be doing something now?" Orion asked dryly.

No sooner had Orion spoke that the three orbs flashed brightly. All four members of the group immediately turned their attention to the three drawings as the orbs flashed again. A second later, the orbs shone brighter than the sun, forcing the quartet to shield their eyes. The light lasted several seconds before it finally died down. The quartet lowered their arms to look back at the temple, only to gape at what was before them.

Where there used to be drawings of the three regis, now stood a large opening into the temple.

"I don't believe it," Orion whispered in amazement. "After all these years, the temple's finally open..."

Stride nodded absentmindedly. He then snapped out of his stupor and smiled widely. "You did it, Zero!"

With a shout, the Greninja lifted the Riolu off his feet and spun him around while laughing uproariously. Zero shouted in alarm, surprised by the sudden action, but soon joined the Greninja in his laughter. Stride eventually put the windswept Riolu back on his feet, chuckling sheepishly when Zero stumbled slightly.

"Sorry about that," Stride apologized. "I lost myself for a moment."

"That's okay," Zero assured, regaining his composure. He beamed up at the Greninja, his tail wagging. "Well? Let's explore the temple!"

"Yes, let's," Stride said, earning a happy cheer from Furno and a mumbled assent from a still stunned Orion. With new found determination, Stride led the group into the temple, intent on discovering its secrets.

-Resistance-

 **Temple of Memoria F1**

The moment the quartet stepped inside the temple, Zero knew something was wrong. Everything was black, almost as if they had their eyes closed, making it impossible to see where they were going. The ground under their feet also seemed to fall away, replaced by what felt like soft grass. On top of that, Zero swore he felt a breeze.

All of a sudden, the absolute blackness bleed away replaced with, not the inside of a stone temple, but a forest. A very familiar forest.

"This is..." Zero gasped.

"Shrouded Forest?!" Furno exclaimed.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

The Temple of Memoria

 **Temple of Memoria F1**

"H-How is this possible?!" Furno exclaimed. He dashed over to the nearest tree, feeling the bark and pulling at the low hanging branches. "This is really Shrouded Forest!"

"Furno! Get away from there!" Stride shouted at the Chimchar, prompting the fire type to yelp and run back to the group.

"Do you think it's a trap?" Furno said. Whether he meant the tree or the forest in general was unclear.

"I don't know," Stride answered, his gaze roaming over the landscape with a critical eye.

"I-I mean, it _looks_ like Shrouded Forest," Furno rambled, still in a state of shock.

"But how is that possible?" Zero asked. "We're practically on the other side of the continent. Not to mention we just stepped into a stone building."

"Yet here we are," Orion butted in, crouching down to pull up a few blades of grass. "This grass feels real and so does the wind. The sun feels warm..."

"That doesn't mean that it's real," Stride said.

"Do you think that this is some kind of illusion?" Orion asked rather skeptically. "No Zoroark that I have encountered is capable of creating such a real illusion as this."

"True, but the world is full of Pokémon that can do things that should be impossible," Stride pointed out. "Not to mention that there are other methods of forming an environment without it being truly real."

Zero frowned, vaguely recalling his encounter with a certain Musharna. "You mean dreams?"

Stride nodded in assent. "Precisely."

"Wait, you're saying we're dreaming?" Furno questioned, his voice both surprised and incredulous. "How?"

"It's possible that, upon our entrance into the temple, we were subjected to...some kind of hypnosis that placed us within a dreamscape," Stride proposed. "There is only one way to know for sure. Orion?"

"Right," the Lucario nodded before closing his eyes.

"What's he doing?" Zero whispered, watching as the protrusions on the back of Orion's head slowly lifted into the air.

"He is using Aura Detection," Stride explained, keeping his gaze on Orion. Zero opened his mouth to further inquire about the ability Orion was using, but Stride apparently anticipated his question and explained.

"Aura Detection is an ability exclusive to Lucario and it's more of an upgraded version of your Emotion Sense. It, in a nutshell, gives a Lucario the ability to sense other aura's around them no matter the size or if they are hidden, subsequently giving the user a detailed view of their surroundings in all direction."

"All directions?" Furno repeated, walking over to the duo. "That's awesome!" He paused. "But how does that help us?"

"Because, along with gaining almost omniscient sight, it can also see through and detect illusions. If we are in some kind of illusion, or even trapped within a dream, Orion will be able to detect it."

 _That's incredible,_ Zero thought. _To be able to see everything around you by just closing your eyes... Will I be able to do that when I evolve?_

Before Zero could contemplate the possibility of his evolution further, Orion opened his eyes, his sensors lowering. "What did you see?" Stride asked immediately.

"It's real," Orion reported grimly. "Or rather, it's as real as it can be."

"What do you mean by that?" Stride inquired.

"Well, as far as I can tell, this place is one hundred percent real," Orion said with a frown. "The air, the grass, the trees, they all have living aura. No illusion can fabricate that. But I noticed something strange."

"Strange how?"

"The air, while it is definitely real, it...shimmers, almost like a mirage."

"A mirage?" Zero murmured under his breath. He looked up at the sky, willing himself to see what Orion had seen. Squinting, Zero strained his eyes in an attempt to see anything out of the ordinary. He was so focused on trying to see something that he almost did not notice the sky ripple.

 _Huh? What was that?_ he thought, slightly alarmed. _Did I really just...?_

"That shimmer..." Orion said, snapping Zero out of his thoughts, "it's similar to that of a mystery dungeon."

"Hmm," Stride hummed in thought. "A mystery dungeon... Well, there's one way to test that."

"What do you..." Orion began, only to close his mouth when Stride pulled his pack off his shoulders and squatted down in front of it.

Orion, Zero, and Furno watched curiously as the Greninja rummaged through the bag before he pulled out an orb. Orb in hand, Stride rose to his full height and looked out over the landscape.

"If this is a mystery dungeon, then this should work," Stride said as he activated the orb. The orb took on a bright light before a pulse of light erupted from the small sphere and rushed outwards across the landscape, causing both Zero and Furno to flinch in surprise. A few seconds passed and no visible change in the environment occurred.

"Did...did it work?" Furno asked curiously.

"It did," Stride confirmed. "It was a petrify orb. It will paralyze all conscious dungeon Pokémon on any given floor. Had it not worked, the orb would not have released that wave."

"So this is a mystery dungeon?" Furno asked, looking around. "But...it's not a maze..."

"True, but there's no doubt, this is a mystery dungeon," Stride said. "But why is it in the form of Shrouded Forest..."

Stride paced back in forth, seemingly lost in thought. "The Temple of Memoria...the temple shamans used to gaze into the past..." Stride froze in place. "Could it be...?"

"Care to share with the rest of us?" Orion asked.

"I have a theory, but I won't know for sure unless we reach the next floor," Stride stated. "Orion, do you think you can use your Aura Detection to find the stairs?"

"Unfortunately, no," Orion answered. "Like in a mystery dungeon, whatever it is that turns an area into a dungeon, distorts my senses past the room I'm in. Despite this not being a conventional dungeon, it would appear there's a limit to how far I can stretch out my senses."

"Damn," Stride cursed. "Then we'll have to search for it the hard way."

"Aren't you going to tell us your theory?" Zero asked.

"It would be pointless to disclose it here when it very well could be disproven when we reach the next floor," Stride responded, already beginning to walk down the singular trail that led through the forest. "Once we reach the next floor, I will disclose my theory."

"But where do we look for the stairs?" Zero asked as he, Furno, and Orion began to follow Stride. Glancing around, he took notice that there was a Pidgey in a tree, frozen in mid-takeoff. "There aren't any rooms like in a dungeon."

"But shouldn't that make it easier?" Furno asked Stride, bypassing Zero in order to walk next to Stride. "I mean, if there's only one trail, the stairs can only be on that trail, right?"

"It would appear so," Orion answered, pointing a ways ahead. Following where he was pointing, the group saw the stairs.

It was strange. Typically, in forest, jungles, and other outdoor mystery dungeons, the staircases led downwards, as if going underground, but that was not the case here. Before them stood a staircase that stood about eight feet tall going straight into the air, apparently leading no where. All ascending staircases that were present in enclosed mystery dungeons with the stairs leading into the ceiling.

"That was easy," Zero commented.

"It's not wise to tempt fate, Zero," Stride advised. "But yes, this seems rather easy, so let's depart before anything happens to make us eat those words."

With nods from the rest of the party, Stride led the group to the stairs and climbed. Stride reached the top of the stairs and vanished. Orion and Furno soon followed, Furno with some hesitation, and both disappeared like Stride. Zero brought up the rear, pausing at the top step before he too ascended and the second he did, everything faded to black.

-Resistance-

 **Temple of Memoria F2**

Like before, the all encompassing darkness bled away to almost blinding light. Zero flinched, tightly shutting his eyes to stave of the light. Half a second later, he was blasted with strong winds and blistering heat. Underneath him, the previously sturdy stone of the stairs gave way to loose, and rather hot, sand.

"No way," Zero heard Furno whisper from next to him, prompting the Riolu to tentatively open his eyes. When he did, he could not help his mouth from dropping open in awe.

All around the Riolu was yellow sand with walls of the same color, if not a shade darker, framing their area. The sun was high in the sky, casting its unforgiving rays down upon the group. Strong winds whipped across their faces, flinging sand at them at the same time.

Zero knew this place. It was...

"Blistering Desert," Furno said. "H-How...?"

"So, my theory seems to be correct," Stride mused.

"And what, pray tell, _is_ your theory?" Orion asked, a twinge of annoyance coloring his voice.

Stride regarded the Lucario for half a second before he relented and explained. "I believe, that this temple, this dungeon, possesses the ability to see into our minds and change the layout of the floor into a location from our memories."

A pause. "What?" Orion asked in disbelief.

"Think about it," Stride broached. "It is said that this temple's purpose was to allow shamans to gaze into the past. What's to say that this temple literally gazes into the past. _Our_ past."

"That's...plausible," Orion begrudged. "Though it seems rather far fetched."

"We just entered a temple that hasn't been entered for years with orbs that we got from defeating the three regis," Zero commented. "That seems far fetched in and out of itself."

"Fair point," Orion conceded.

"So does this mean, for each floor we go through, we'll be going through a dungeon that we've gone through in the past?" Furno asked.

"No exactly. As you saw on the last floor, the floors may not be dungeons at all," Stride answered. "We could end up anywhere that we've been in our memories."

"Anywhere?" Furno gulped.

"Anywhere," Stride confirmed. "We could end up in a dungeon, town, a beach, a house, anywhere. Anywhere we have ever been before."

Stride stopped talking after that, allowing his words to sink in. Anywhere that they have been. There was no preparation any of them could do to ready themselves for the next floor. They could end up in a completely different biome with different Pokémon and types. While it was common knowledge that dungeons randomized their floors with each pass, this place was a truly randomized dungeon.

"And that's not even the worst part," Stride added.

"What do you mean?" Zero asked.

Surprisingly, it as Orion who answered. "He means that, for places that _aren't_ dungeons, it will be increasingly difficult to find the stairs for the next floor."

Stride nodded, confirming Orion's statement. "But we got through the last floor pretty quickly," Furno argued. "Wouldn't the other floors be like that?"

"No, they wouldn't," Stride disagreed. "Think about it, what if we ended up in a place like the Latios Division? There are close to a hundred quarters, the training grounds, mess hall, and several other rooms. Now, out of all of those places, what do you think the chances of the staircase being in the first place we search?"

"...slim," Furno answered.

"And what if we end up in the Groudon Division?" Stride continued. "It's just as big as the Latios Division, if not more so, so what are the chances of finding the stairs in the first place you look there?"

"Alright, Stride, we get it," Zero interrupted, stepping in front of his friend. From the corner of his eye, Zero saw Furno glaring at the ground, his hands curled into fists. Zero could tell that the fire type was upset, but whether it was at him or Stride, he was not sure.

"No, you don't. You two need to understand something. This place is incredibly dangerous," Stride said, pulling Zero's attention back to the taller Pokémon. The Greninja crouched so that he was at Zero's level, his red eyes burning into the Riolu's eyes. "If theory is true, you can't afford to take things easy or think that things will be easy. The place is dangerous. You can't just mosey on through this place!"

"This isn't the first dungeon we've been in, Stride," Zero said rather cockily, glaring back at the Greninja. "Every time we go out on a mission, every time we enter a dungeon, we put ourselves in danger. We know how serious and how dangerous mystery dungeons can be!"

Behind him, Furno nodded his heads at Zero's words, though he still did not look up from the ground. However, Stride was not as convinced as Furno.

"Really? You know danger?" Stride scoffed disbelievingly. "Okay then, tell me something."

"Stride," Orion warned, but the Lucario ignored him.

"The hardest dungeon you've been to was what? Ironside Cave? Well let me tell you something, for both me and Stride, that place would be a cake walk." Stride got right in Zero's face, admittedly intimidating the Riolu once more. "We've been part of the resistance for _years_ and we've been to dungeons that even we consider dangerous. Dungeons where _we_ barely made it out alive. And this place..."

Stride looked around, arms wide as if he were indicating the dungeon itself. "...this place takes places that we've _all_ been to, not just the two of you. So tell me, how will you two fair in the middle of a volcano? Or the bottom of the sea? Or in a mountain where lightning strikes at you every few seconds?!" Stride was ranting now. He had gone beyond simple scolding. His voice was cold and condescending. Zero could feel Stride's Intent beginning to intrude into his mind, once more beginning to fill the Riolu with fear, and was quick to push it back with his own natural ability to control his emotions. Unfortunately, Stride was not making it easy.

"So tell me, Team Dawn Breaker," Stride suddenly said, causing both Zero and Furno to jump in fright at the amount of disdain in the Lucario's voice, "how will you two handle places like that, hmm? This place is made so that the more experience you have and the more places you've been, the harder it is to get through. Not to mention there's no telling how many floors are in this Arceus forsaken dungeon! We could be going through dozens of those kinds of dungeons! So tell me, how will two rookies like you two deal with a dungeon made up of dungeons that experienced veterans have had difficulty with? Answer me that!"

"Stride! Enough!" Orion shouted.

Stride glared at the Lucario before scoffing. "They needed to know," he said simply, getting to his feet and walking away from Zero and Furno.

"There's a difference between informing and intimidating," Orion growled.

As the two older Pokémon argued, Zero could only stare ahead vacantly, his mind elsewhere. _I...It never even occurred to me that we'd also be seeing places from their memory,_ he thought. _The places they've been, the things they've seen, it's all fair game here. Can we really face that kind of stuff?_

Zero glanced over at Furno and saw that he too was lost in thought. Doubt began to creep into the young Riolu as the implications of the dungeon fully settled. The possibility that they could encounter something that they could not handle, even with the help of Stride and Orion. They could even...

Zero shook his head. If things were truly this dangerous, it may be better if they left the dungeon all together. With that resolve, Zero stepped towards Stride and Orion. "Um, if...if this place really is that dangerous...maybe...maybe we should leave."

"Zero?" Furno asked, completely stunned by the Riolu's proclamation.

Both Pokémon paused in the argument. "Zero...Are you sure?" Orion asked.

Zero glanced at Furno, who was sporting a look of disbelief and anger, before turning back to the ninja Pokémon with a nod. "Yeah, I'm sure."

"Are you serious, Zero?!" Furno exclaimed, stomping over to the Riolu. "You want to run away?"

"This place is too dangerous," Zero responded. "You heard what Orion said. We'll be going to places well above our current level and I don't feel confident that we'll be able to handle them!"

"We? You mean _me_ , don't you?" Furno questioned, eyes narrowing.

"What? No!" Zero said.

"You still don't think that I can handle myself!" Furno shouted, getting worked up. "You still don't trust me!"

"This has nothing to do with trust," Zero growled, trying desperately to keep his voice level. "I don't think either of us could survive in this place. That's why I want us to leave."

"So you just want to what? Run away?" Furno scoffed, crossing his arms.

"If it means surviving to fight another day, then yes," Zero answered. When Furno opened his mouth to continue to argue, Zero put his foot down. "This is final, Furno! We decided that I was the leader of our team so what I say goes. We. Are. Leaving."

Furno shut his mouth, but he still glared mutinously. The air turned heavy and tense as the duo continued to glare at one another, neither one willing to back down. Finally, after what felt like hours, Furno broke eye contact and looked at the ground.

"Fine," he ground out, unwilling to meet Zero's gaze.

Zero nodded, his body losing some of its tension. He turned back to Stride who was looking at the duo with a curious expression on his face. Zero coughed awkwardly. "We're ready."

"Right..." Stride reached into his pack and removed another orb. "Here."

Zero took the orb and stepped away from Stride as to not pull him pull him into the orb's range. Furno still looked opposed to Zero's plan, but he did move closer to Zero, albeit with a great deal of reluctance.

Ignoring Furno's grumblings, Zero addressed Stride. "Should we wait for you two?"

"I would say wait for a couple of days at most," Stride answered. "If we're still not out by that point, head back to the Latios Division and report this."

"Understood," Zero said. With that Zero held out the orb and activated it.

The escape orb began to glow with a bright blue light, steadily growing brighter as the light began to stretch out over Zero and Furno. Then, just as quickly as it started, the glow died down, leaving the orb dull.

A second passed. Then another and another.

"Huh?" was all Zero could ask.

"What happened?" Furno asked, anger momentarily abated.

Stride wordlessly stepped forward and took the orb from Zero and observed it. "It appears to have activated."

"But we're still here," Furno pointed out.

"I am aware, but it would appear that the orb did indeed activate," Stride said. "I can only assume something in this place is keeping the orb from activating."

As he said this, Zero felt his stomach drop. They were trapped. Trapped within what could possibly be the most dangerous dungeon in existence.

A sudden roar pulled the group out of their thoughts. Turning around, they saw a Rhyhorn step into the room. The rock-ground type pawed the ground, snorting loudly, its red eyes burning with wild fury.

Zero cursing internally. They all had been so caught up in their own conversations and thoughts that they had forgotten that they were in a dungeon!

The spikes Pokémon roared once more, prompting Zero to slip into his fighting stance, and charged forward...

...only to be sent back flying back out of the room via a strong torrent of water.

Zero and Furno blanched as the Rhyhorn slumped to the ground, gobsmacked over how easy the Greninja had knocked out the Pokémon. When they had last faced a Rhyhorn, back when they had actually gone to Blistering Desert, it had taken Furno's Akari Flame to defeat it, yet Stride has easily dispatched it. Even if Stride had the type advantage, it was still an incredible feat to the duo.

"We've spent too much time here," Stride said, hardly giving the unconscious Pokémon a second glance. "We need to move."

He glanced at Team Dawn Breaker, the cogs visibly turning in his head. "Seeing as there's no way to send you two back, you'll have to come with us."

Furno looked visibly excited while Zero visibly winced. He was not looking forward to this dungeon.

"Keep close," Stride said curtly, turning around and stalking towards one of the paths.

Furno was quick to respond, racing after the Greninja, a triumphant gleam in his eye. Zero hesitated, a weak sigh escaping his lips. Worry and fear made their presence known in his mind as he thought of hundreds of possible ways things could go wrong, each worse than the last, along with the worry that he did not have what it took to be a leader. He almost yelped when a sudden paw clasped his shoulder.

"For what it's worth, I think your decision to head back was a mature one and showed your capability as a leader," Orion said, offering the Riolu a small smile before trailing behind Stride and Furno.

A small warmth struck against the cold fear that was gripping Zero's heart. Orion clearly believed in him so he should too. With new resolve, Zero followed after the group, determined to get through the dungeon.

-Resistance-

 **Temple of Memoria F3**

With Stride and Orion leading, it did not take the group long to make their way through the dungeon. It was almost scary how quickly the two older resistance members defeated all dungeon Pokémon that they came across, leaving very few for Zero and Furno to battle. In only ten minutes, the group had found the stairs and preceded to the next floor.

Immediately upon arriving, the group was met with solid ground and a blast of cool wind, both welcome changes from the previous floor. There was light, but it was not as intense as it was previously.

Zero opened his eyes and nearly had a heart attack when he was met with the sight of a near bottomless cavern.

"Gah!" he shouted, leaping backward, accidently bumping into Orion.

"Woah there little buddy," Orion said, steadying the Riolu.

"Thanks," Zero said gratefully. After regaining his balance, and getting over his embarrassment, Zero took stock of his surroundings.

They appeared to be on a mountain range of sorts, but it was clearly a dungeon. The room they were in was open with the entire left side looking out over the side of the mountain, which was not a chasm as Zero first thought. There was only one path leading out of the room which jutted out from the mountain and wrapping around the mountain.

"That looks safe," Furno commented sarcastically, a bead of sweat trailing down the side of his face.

Stride stepped past the duo, his gaze firmly locked on the path, his expression alarmed. "No...we can't be here..." he whispered, his expression becoming more mortified with each passing second.

"Stride?" Furno asked in concern.

"Dammit," Orion cursed, apparently recognizing the dungeon. A similar expression of horror on his face. "I knew it was possible that we'd end up here, but I didn't think it would be this soon."

"Where exactly are we?" Zero asked, dreading the answer.

"Razed Ridge," Stride responded, visibly grimacing.

At those words, Zero felt his heart drop into his stomach. _What have we gotten ourselves into?_


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

Razed Ridge

"Razed Ridge?" Furno asked warily. "As in the same Razed ridge that leads into both the emperor's land and the free territories? That Razed Ridge?!"

Glancing at the fire type, Zero could see more than a little worry flashing within his eyes. It was the first time the former human had seen actual fear in the Chimchar's since they entered the dungeon.

"That's correct," Stride almost growled, though there was no anger in his voice. Only fear and worry.

"We need to get out of here. Now," Orion said, his gaze constantly shifting from place to place. From ground to sky.

"No!" Stride shouted, whirling and glaring at the Lucario. "This isn't a dungeon that we can just run through! This place is dangerous, incredibly so! Especially for them!" He gestured to Zero and Furno. "We need to precede with caution."

He then turned to Zero and Furno, pinning them with an intense look. "I don't want either of you to get in direct confrontation with _any_ of the Pokémon in this dungeon. They are far to strong for either of you to fight against. If by some chance neither Orion nor myself can protect you, then you are to use any items at your disposal to restrain or subdue the Pokémon and nothing else! You are to flee immediately after, is that clear?"

"Yes," Zero responded while Furno nodded.

"Good." With that, Stride glanced at Orion before beginning to walk towards the path that jutted out into open air.

"And make sure you watch your step," Orion added as he ushered Zero and Furno forward.

"Thanks for the advice," Furno quipped, giving the Lucario a deadpan stare. Orion just chuckled in response.

The young duo carefully made their way along the path after Stride, Orion bringing up the rear. The path way, while narrow, had enough room for one Pokémon to walk comfortably along the path at a time. However, this did not take away from the precariousness of the path that was suspended over open air, so high that Zero could not see the bottom.

They preceded at a hurried yet cautious pace, preceding down the winding path that later led to branching paths and more suspended 'rooms'. Their progress was slow as Stride stopped almost every five minutes to simply listen to their surroundings, and both Zero and Furno were getting antsy.

"This place is really big," Furno mused aloud as Stride stopped again. "I wouldn't be surprised if we went through this entire dungeon without encountering any wild Pokémon!"

"I wouldn't be too sure," Orion disagreed. "From my experience, the larger the dungeon, or dungeon floor, the more Pokémon that are present. It may not look it now, but, sooner or later, we will run into dungeon Pokémon. Of that, I'm sure."

Furno audibly gulped and said nothing else. Eventually, Stride seemed satisfied with what he had observed, or lack thereof, and their journey continued.

Despite what Orion had said, the group still had not encountered any dungeon Pokémon for another ten minutes. After a little more walking, Stride led the group to a suspended 'room' for a short break to eat and rest from the journey. Stride passed out large gold apple from his pack which he cut into four pieces.

"Why are we only getting a fourth of an apple?" Furno asked curiously.

"Because these are Golden Apples," Stride responded.

Seeing Furno and Zero still looking confused, Orion took it upon himself to explain. "Golden Apples have the ability to fill anyone up, even a Snorlax. A single slice like these will tide you over for hours."

Furno nodded and took his apple slice without another complaint. Zero glance skeptically at the apple slice in his paws before sinking his teeth into the fruit. The apple slice did not taste any different than any other apple, but the second it went down his throat he immediately felt his stomach fill as if he had an entire meal.

"Wow, that was surprisingly filling," Furno said, patting his stomach.

"Told you," Orion chuckled, eating his own slice.

"Five more minutes," Stride interrupted, looking around the area with a wary eye.

A comfortable silence fell over the group as the group, or at least three out of the four of them, allowed themselves to relax. As they waited, Zero took that time to glance over the edge of the platform. As before, the Riolu could see open air with clouds below and the edge of the mountain back the way they came. Curious, Zero took a sizeable rock and tossed it over the side.

The rock tumbled through the air as Zero expected, racing towards the cloud line. However, just before the rock disappeared into the clouds, it vanished.

Zero's eyes widened in surprise. Thinking that he had imagined it, Zero took another rock and repeated the action with the same results.

"Uh, Orion?" Zero asked.

"Hm?" the Lucario hummed questioningly.

"What exactly happens if you fall over the side of this place."

The Lucario looked over at Zero with questioning look in his eye. "Well, from the reports from the real Razed Ridge, you would fall out of the dungeon and fall to the bottom of the mountain. You see, Razed Ridge is really part of a mountain range called the Precipice Mountains. You have to climb one of the mountains form either side and you end up on the first floor of Razed Ridge."

"So, if you fall, you end up at the bottom of the mountain range?" Furno asked.

"No, you don't just 'end up' at the bottom. You fall as if you had fallen from the _top_ of the mountain," Orion explained somberly.

"Oh," Furno gulped. "S-So, what would happen if we fell off here? I mean, we're not on the Precipice Mountains…"

"I'm not sure and I don't wish to find out," Orion stated.

Zero nodded, not wanting to discover what would happen should he fall. He opened his mouth to say something when Stride suddenly jumped to his feet.

"MOVE!"

Zero did not even get a chance to process what Stride had said when he felt and arm wrap around his mid-section and lift him into the air. Everything blurred for several seconds before Zero found himself at the other end of the platform held like a sack of flour in Orion's arm, Furno in the other. Not a second later a large shape crashed into the spot Zero and Furno once resided, causing the platform to shake to the point Zero feared the platform would collapse.

Through the large plume of dust that had been generated by the object, Zero could see something large and round, almost like a boulder, or at least, Zero thought it was a boulder until it started to move. The objected rocked from side to side before appearing to lift off of the ground by some unknown power.

The dust began to settle around the object just as _something_ stepped out of it. Zero's initial observation appeared to be at least partially correct as the figure did look like a boulder. Or rather, a boulder with tan limbs and a head. The large boulder Pokémon glared angrily at the group before roaring and lumbering forward.

"Golem," Stride ground out, tensing in preparation.

Orion carefully set Zero and Furno down on their feet and mirrored Stride's action. Zero and Furno too prepared themselves, but were immediately pushed back by Orion. "No! Stand back and leave this to us!" Not even looking back at the duo, Orion shot past Stride and raced towards the megaton Pokémon.

The rock-ground type roared at the Lucario's approach, lifting its arms and baring its claws. As it did so, an orb of reddish-purple energy began to coalesce in its mouth before shooting forward in a massive beam of energy.

The Hyper Beam screamed across the platform, racing towards the encroaching Orion. Orion, for his part, kept running, not even flinching at the attack. At the last possible second, Orion disappeared in a burst of speed, causing the beam to carve a trench through the stone. The aura Pokémon then suddenly appeared behind the Golem and deliver a vicious Bullet Punch to the back of the dungeon Pokémon's head.

The Golem was pitched forward, clearly reeling from pain, but remained standing on its feet. The rock ground type slowly turned around, eyes burning with anger, and was about to retaliate when a high-pressured star of water cut through the air, leaving a large gash on the Golem's flank, eliciting a harsh cry of pain from the megaton Pokémon. Not a second later, Orion let loose another Bullet Punch to the Golem, finally sending it to the ground.

Zero and Furno watched as the two older resistance members did battle with the newly arrived dungeon Pokémon. They were in awe over not only the sheer intensity of both Stride and Orion's assault, but how the Golem was still standing.

"How is that thing still standing?!" Furno exclaimed in shock as he watched the Greninja landed another Water Shuriken, only for the Golem to shrug off the attack and release a flurry of sharp stones at both Stride and Orion.

"I guess this is why they didn't want us to fight," Zero commented, eyes glued on the battle unfolding before them.

Furno chose not to comment and continued to watch the fight along with Zero. They were so caught up in the fight that they did not notice the sounds of an encroaching dungeon Pokémon until it was right on top of them.

"GRAH!" Both Pokémon jumped in shock at the sudden roar, spinning around to face a new arrival.

The new Pokémon was quadrupedal and rather stocky. It was primarily a dark gray color with segments of iron armor, each with high ridges and dark holes on the side, covering its back and head. On each of its legs, it had two bands, the top being the same color as the majority of its body and the lower the same color as its armor. Bright blue eyes glared hatefully at the young duo.

"A Lairon," Furno said, his entire body tensing.

The now named Pokémon rumbled in challenge, pawing at the ground. It hunkered down, its legs tensing to spring forward.

Zero, seeing Furno looking like he was ready to fight, placed a paw on his friend's arm. "Furno, we're not supposed to fight anything here!"

"Well that Lairon's not giving us much of a choice!" Furno shouted back, just as the steel-rock type roared and charged the duo. Furno growled in response and jumped forward to meet the iron armor Pokémon, ignoring Zero's shout to stop.

With the Lairon baring down on him, Furno took a deep breath and exhaled, releasing a Flamethrower at the steel-rock type. The large torrent of flames gushed from Furno's mouth, creating a near wall of flames between him and the charging Pokémon, however, instead of being intimidated, the Lairon continued undeterred.

The steel-rock type plunged straight into Furno's attack, paying little to no mind to the flames licking at its armored body. This caught Furno off guard as he unexpectedly cut off his attack to gape at the sight. Unfortunately, while Furno had stopped his attack, the Lairon had not stopped its advance.

"Furno, MOVE!" Zero shouted, rushing to his friend's side just as the larger Pokémon, in a surprising display of dexterity, leapt into the air, heading for Furno. Zero grabbed this still shell-shocked Chimchar by the arm and pulled him out of the way as the dungeon Pokémon smashed into the ground with a Body Slam.

The Lairon's body shook the ground violently, creating a crater underneath it. The sudden jolt from the ground shaking seemed to snap Furno out of his stupor. He immediately tore his arm from Zero's grip, glaring, but saying nothing.

The Lairon, upon realizing that it had not landed on its target, growled and got back to its feet. Once more, it pawed the ground, preparing for another charge. Both Zero and Furno tensed, preparing to either dodge or engage the dungeon Pokémon as it charged. Just as the steel-rock type was about to charge, an Aura Sphere raced past the duo and smashed into the Lairon with a cacophonous clang. The dungeon Pokémon screeched in pain, skidding backwards several feet, a visible dent appearing on its armor.

"What did we tell you?!" Orion shouted, suddenly appearing beside the duo. "Leave the dungeon Pokémon to us!

Orion then summoned a bone staff in his paws and dashed forward as the Lairon recovered. The iron armor Pokémon swung its head around just as Orion swung his club. The Lairon opened its jaws and caught the bone staff in its mouth, stopping the Lucario cold.

As Orion struggled with the Lairon, he turned around and shouted at Zero and Furno. "Go! Get out of here! Leave it to me and Stride!"

Furno looked ready to protest, but Zero grabbed his arm and pulled him along as he raced towards the path the Lairon had come from.

-Resistance-

"What the heck, Zero?!" Furno shouted when the duo had put some substantial distance between themselves and Stride and Orion.

"Orion told us to get out of there," Zero responded, glancing around. He had brought them to a singular pathway, far enough away from the fight so they could not get involved, but close enough so they could be found.

"We could have helped!" Furno shouted.

"How?!" Zero snapped, whirling around towards Furno. "You blasted that Lairon point blank with a Flamethrower, which was supposed to be highly effective against steel types like Lairon, but that thing just shook it off! We can't stand up to Pokémon like that!"

Furno opened and closed his mouth, struggling to find something to refute Zero's claim. When he could find no argument, Furno turned away from Zero, grumbling under his breath. Seeing this, Zero sighed heavily, both from relief and exasperation.

The duo stood awkwardly beside one another, waiting for some sign from Stride and Orion. Cool wind blew along the path, reminding Zero that they were basically standing in open air. He was about to suggest moving to a platform when Furno spoke.

"This place is really tough, huh?" Furno said, appearing uncomfortable.

Zero held back a chuckle at his friend's awkward attempt at conversation, but was happy all the same that his friend was actually making an effort to talk to him. Quickly forgetting his earlier plan to search for a larger area, Zero happily, yet somberly, replied, "Yeah. The Pokémon here are really strong. A lot stronger than any other we've fought, even Spikefang."

Furno hummed in agreement, still not facing Zero. "I can…I can see now why you wanted to leave this place." Zero's head snapped around so fast that he swore he could hear a loud crack.

"Wh-What?"

"I said I understand why you wanted to leave," Furno said with an annoyed huff. Said annoyance evaporated almost immediately, his shoulders slumping forward. He then turned and faced his friend, a slightly strained smile working its way onto his face. "You were right with your decision. I was just to stubborn to admit it, but seeing my attack fail like that…"

"I get it," Zero said. "Tensions were running high and you didn't want to seem…" Zero trailed off, not wanting to say what he was thinking. Thankfully, Furno said it.

"Weak," Furno finished, nodding his head. "Yeah…"

An awkward silence once more fell upon the duo, neither of them able to look at the other. After several seconds, Zero broke the silence.

"Furno…" Zero began. "You know I don't think you're weak, right?"

The chimp Pokémon sighed heavily. He opened his mouth to begin the conversation/argument that they had been having for the past three days when a loud screech cut him off.

Jumping in surprise, the duo spun around looking for the source. It was not until the second screech and the sound of beating wings that they realized where the sound was coming from.

"Above us!" both Pokémon shouted in unison before both of them leap back as a blurred shape slammed in between them with an incredible amount of force.

Both resistance members tensed as the dust began to settle, revealing their attacker. Standing between them was a large avian Pokémon with dark red feathers on its back a dark blue, almost black, feathers on its underside. Its tail feathers were red, ending in yellow and blue tips. Its feet had razor sharp black talons. Its beak was long and thick with a blue cere. Above its cold black eyes, it had three large, white feathers, each with a red base. Behind those three feathers were three others pointing horizontal and downwards. Behind those feathers, the Pokémon had a large plume of smaller feathers.

"A Braviary?" Zero asked, vaguely recognizing the normal-flying type from a book Weiss had him read.

"I guess we shouldn't be surprised," Furno said. "Braviary are known to circle mountaintops and cliffs along with Mandibuzz."

As they spoke, the large avian regarded the duo with feral eyes. Its head shifted back and forth between them, seemingly deciding which one of them it would go after.

"What do we do?" Furno questioned, his entire body rigid, a bead of sweat rolling down the back of his neck.

Zero growled, his mind moving a mile a minute, but before he could come up with a plan, the Braviary decided.

"SCREE!" the valiant Pokémon screeched loudly before taking to the air and diving towards Furno.

Furno yelped, just being able to leap over the normal-flying type as it swept past. The dungeon Pokémon, upon missing its intended target, pulled upwards and spun around, facing the duo. Bringing its wings up, sky blue energy swirled forth in the form of hundreds of blades of wind. With another shrill cry, the Braviary flung the sphere at the duo.

"Move!" Zero shouted as both he and Furno leapt back.

The Air Slash tore through the air and slammed into the pathway, unleashing a burst of razor sharp wind. Unfortunately for Zero and Furno, the attack was much more powerful than they had anticipated as the shockwave of wind blasted at them, sending them flying back.

Both Pokémon scrambled for some kind of purchase as they were sent tumbling across the platform. Eventually, the winds subsided, allowing Zero and Furno to regain their footing. Looking up, they saw that, while the path had held under the Braviary's attack, the Air Slash had left a series of deep gouges in the stone. The two members of Team Dawn Breaker gulped thickly and looked back up at the Braviary that was to hovering in place.

"This isn't good. We don't have enough room to move as much as we want," Zero said, eyes shifting frantically for some escape.

"Then we'll have to do what Orion advised," Furno said. "We use items."

Zero nodded in assent and swung their pack off of his shoulders, just as the Braviary gave another screech.

"SCREE!" With a shrill cry, the avian dove straight down, flames erupting around its form.

Furno stood in front of Zero, watching the bird's decent, as his leader quickly rifled through the pack for any item that could help them. "Anytime now, Zero," Furno prompted, watching as the flaming missile grew closer to the ground.

"Working on it," Zero said.

Just as the Braviary was about to slam into the ground, it extended its wings, the flames around its body peeling away leaving a shining blue aura surrounding its body. It then pulled out of its dive and rocketed straight towards the duo.

"Zero…" Furno implored, watching as the avian got closer.

Panicking, Zero pulled out the first thing that he could wrap his fingers around. Not even looking at it was, the Riolu pulled back his arm and hurled the object at the encroaching Braviary.

The item, as it turned out, happened to be a blast seed which promptly detonated upon contact with the glowing bird. The explosion, while not enough to cause any damage, was enough to shock the valiant Pokémon into leading slightly to the side. This caused the normal-flying type to just barely miss the duo, the wind stirred up from its passage whipping at the young resistance members' faces.

The Braviary pulled up, its blue aura dissipating and what looked like electricity arching through its body. It glared at the elusive duo and flew around so that it was parallel with the path. With a mighty flap of its wings, a rush of high powered wind blasted towards the Riolu and Chimchar. Unprepared for the sudden Whirlwind, both resistance members were thrown across the path at an odd angle.

Furno, channeling the same ground type energy that allowed him to use Dig into his fingers, dug into the stone, keeping him from being blown away. Unfortunately for Zero, he had no such ability and was sent tumbling across the path. From the corner of his eye, the young leader saw their pack flying along with him and was able to loop his foot into one of the strap just as he hit open air.

For a split second, Zero's mind went blank. His mind could not process the lack of solid ground under him. It felt like he was floating, nothing holding him up or pulling him down. It was almost serene. Not a second later, his mind caught up with the situation the same time that gravity took hold.

Flailing wildly, Zero was just able to grab hold of the side of the path. The jolt of his descent abruptly stopping shook his frame, causing several of the items in his pack to tumble out and fall into open air.

"Zero!" Furno shouted in alarm, rushing to the side of the path. Seeing his friend still hanging on, Furno sighed in relief. "Oh, thank Arceus!"

"I could use some help," Zero grunted.

"Right!" Furno said. He bent down and reached down for his friend, intent on pulling him up, when a shadow passed over him.

"Furno, look out!" Zero shouted.

Furno whipped around, but was unable to react fast enough as the Braviary lashed out with its talons, both of which had taken on a white glow. Furno cried out in pain as he was crushed under the dungeon Pokémon's Crush Claw, its talons digging into his skin. With a satisfied croon, the avian gripped the smaller Pokémon in its talons and flung him across the path where he landed limp.

"FURNO!" Zero shouted upon seeing his friend get tossed aside like a lifeless ragdoll.

The Braviary paid the Riolu no mind as it stalked towards the Chimchar, not even bothering to take flight. Furno groaned in pain, hands moving to cover his bleeding wounds that the dungeon Pokémon's talons. Standing above the prone fire type, the valiant Pokémon reared its head back, a white glow encompassing its beak. Lunging forward, the dungeon Pokémon was about to spear the Chimchar with a Peck when a blade of blue wind slammed into its back, causing the Braviary to lose focus, causing its attack to fade and its beak to hit solid stone.

"Hey bird-brain! Over here!"

Whirling around with an enraged screech, the Braviary whirled around, its beady black eyes finding Zero standing in front of it, left arm forward and the other behind his back. Turning around fully, the avian flared its wings menacingly. Zero growled in response, glaring heatedly at the Pokémon that had injured his friend. Flapping its wings, the Braviary hovered off the ground before rushing the fighting type with an Aerial Ace.

Zero tensed, sinking into a crouch as the normal-flying type approached. The avian grew closer and closer, but still the former human did not move. As the avian was upon the Riolu, it let out a screech of triumph. It was at that moment Zero struck.

With narrowed eyes, Zero snapped his right arm forward, flinging the seed that he had clutched in his paw at the avian's open beak before diving out of the way. Zero's aim held true as the seed soared through the air and right into the Braviary's throat.

The normal-flying type choked at the sudden intrusion before swallowing the seed. As it did, its entire body tensed as if being shocked. The dungeon Pokémon opened its mouth, but no sound came out. Unable to move, the Braviary crashed into the ground, skidding across the stone pathway until it slid over the edge.

Zero raced to the edge, watching as the Braviary fell through the air, unable to move. The normal-flying type, helpless to even flap its wings, silently tumbled through the air before disappearing from view.

The Riolu continued to look over the side, half expecting the Braviary to fly back into view. When it did not, the young leader sighed in relief and got to his feet.

"Zero!" Furno called out, finally getting up from the ground, though still wincing. Looking around and not seeing the dungeon Pokémon, Furno gained a confused look on his face. "What happened to the Braviary."

"It fell," Zero responded simply. Noting that his friend was still bleeding, Zero was quick to grab a sitrus berry from their pack. He was about to give the berry to his friend when another screech, albeit deeper than the Braviary's, sounded off from above them. Spinning around, Zero saw the culprit just as it landed.

Standing directly in front of the Riolu, was another avian Pokémon. Its head and neck were bare of any feathers aside from the dark brown tuft with a bone through it, resembling a ponytail, coming from the back of its head. It had a tan ruff around the base of its neck, and shaggy dark brown wings with gray tips and equally shaggy brown tail feathers. Its beak was black and possessed a skirt-like series of bones, more specifically a jaw with sharp teeth. Its feet were as pink as its head and had black talons. Around its blood-red eyes looked to be black eyeliner.

The new arrival screeched again, stretching out its neck so that it was just an inch away from Zero's face. Surprised, Zero tried to move back, but stumbled. With a short yelp, Zero landed onto his rear.

Still caught in his stupor, Zero was at the mercy of the dark vulture. The Pokémon screeched again, moving to attack the prone Riolu. Zero could hear Furno shouting at him to move, but the former human found his body unresponsive. Just as it seemed that the dungeon Pokémon would end him, Zero was saved by a glowing bone suddenly materializing and slamming into the bird's side.

Orion glared angrily at the dungeon Pokémon, which had taken to the air. The Pokémon, enraged over being assaulted by the Lucario, screeched once more. It brought its wings together, most likely readying an attack, but Orion was faster.

Dismissing his bone staff, the aura Pokémon formed a deep blue Aura Sphere and fired it at the Pokémon. The orb raced through the air before exploding against its left wing. With a cry of pain, the Pokémon plunged straight down before it too disappeared from view.

"I thought I told you two not to fight these Pokémon head on," Orion scolded, giving the duo a hard look. "They're too powerful for either of you!"

It took a second for Orion's words to register in Zero's mind. "W-Wait! We didn't-"

"We need to leave! Now!" Stride shouted, racing towards the trio, appearing rather harried. As he approached, Zero noted that the Greninja had a few bruises and cuts on his body.

"What happened to 'precede with caution'?" Orion asked. As he spoke, Zero noted that he too had various injuries.

"That went out the window when I triggered a monster house!" Stride snapped, forcibly ushering the Lucario and Riolu forward.

"Monster house?" Zero questioned, glancing behind the Greninja. When he did, he saw what had terrified the ninja Pokémon.

Stomping down the path in a single file line was a herd of Pokémon. Zero saw a few Golem snd Graveler, a couple of Larion, and, leading the charge, a large and vicious looking Tyranitar. Circling around the path was a flock of Braviary and a single Mandibuzz.

"Yeah, let's go," Zero said, taking the initiative and racing down the path ahead of both Stride and Orion. He reached Furno, who had been staring at the heard of Pokémon in horror, and grabbed his arm, pulling him along with him.

The quartet raced down the interlacing paths, the dungeon Pokémon nipping at their heels the entire way. Orion quickly overtook the duo, but stayed close enough to protect them from any attack. Stride, pulling up the rear suddenly stopped and turned to face the encroaching Pokémon.

Noticing that the Greninja was no longer following them, Zero stopped as well. "Stride!" he called out towards his mentor.

"Zero, let's go!" Orion called back, stopping as well. He rushed to the emanation Pokémon's side and began pulling on his arm. "Stride can handle himself!"

Zero took one last glance at the Greninja before following after the Lucario, leaving Stride to face the herd by himself.

Oblivious to what was going on behind him, Stride glared at the Tyranitar as it lumbered towards him. Subtly, he reached into his pack, his fingers closing around a seed. With a quick glance to confirm what he had, Stride lashed out, throwing the seed into Tyranitar's open mouth.

As the seed impacted against the Tyranitar's forehead, immediately bursting and releasing a light green powder over the rock-dark type. Almost instantly, the seed began to take effect. The armor Pokémon's eyes became heavy and its body began to sway on the spot. The large dungeon Pokémon continued to stomp forward, despite its sudden weariness. Growling feebly, the Tyranitar raised its claw to strike the Greninja, but fell face first into the ground. A second later, it started snoring.

Smirking, as the Pokémon behind the behemoth could no longer pass, the Greninja once more took off towards his allies. After several seconds of running, Stride met up with his allies, who stood stock still in the opening of a new platform. "Why have you all stopped?" he asked.

Orion glanced at the Greninja, his expression unreadable. "We found the stairs, but there's a problem."

Frowning, Stride past the Lucario, noting that stiffness in his form, almost as if Orion did not want to move. Looking into the room, Stride did indeed see that stairs sitting in the far corner. At first, Stride did not notice what was wrong until he noticed a small green and white figure.

The Pokémon before them appeared to be wearing a white tutu with three ruffles on each hip, giving it a feminine appearance. It had thin green legs and pointed feet. Its arms were also thin and possessed two digits on each hand. Its 'hair' was green and covered most of its face and reached its shoulders, styled to look like twin ponytails. On either side of its head it had a flat, red horn that resembled a hairpin. The Pokémon noticed Stride's entrance and appeared to grin maliciously.

"What's a Kirlia doing in a place like this?" Furno questioned. "They don't frequent mountains, do they?"

"It doesn't look like it would be suited for this kind of environ-" Zero's statement was cut off when he felt an unexpected wave of anger attack his mind, almost causing him to faint on the spot.

"Stride!" Zero faintly heard Orion shout. "Calm down, we don't have time for this!"

Zero's vison blurred as another wave of anger rushed over him. He felt himself sway on the spot and he would have fallen had a strong arm not looped around his midsection.

"Come on, Stride!" Orion shouted.

Focusing, Zero was able to cut through the anger encompassing his mind, allowing him to see clearly. He saw that Stride was still standing stock still, completely rigid, his hands curled into tight fists. His expression appeared calm, but Zero could clearly see the burning rage behind his eyes.

"It's him," Stride said, his voice hardly louder than a whisper. "It's really him…"

"Stride, this place is just from your memories!" Orion snapped. "It's not really him!"

Despite Orion's words, Stride still did not take his gaze off of the Kirlia. His entire body was shaking with barely contained anger.

Zero was not sure what was happening or why Stride was experiencing so much anger, but it was causing them to lose time. Even now, he could distantly hear the sound of heavy footfalls. They were running out of time.

With that in mind, Zero slowly, as to not arouse suspicious from the still smirking Kirlia, began to edge away from the group while reaching into his pack and pulled out a sleep seed. Taking a deep breath, Zero psyched himself up and hurled it towards the Kirlia.

The seed arched through the air and looked as if it would hit the Kirlia in between its horns, but right before it made contact, the seed froze in midair, a light blue glow surrounding it. The Kirlia lazily moved its head, looking at the seed with a bored expression before using Confusion to toss it over the side of the platform. It then turned its red eyes towards Zero, pinning him with its stare.

Zero felt his body freeze at the look. It was…familiar somehow, something that was both confusing and disconcerting. The Riolu uneasily stepped backwards, unnerved by the look, but felt something grip his body, freezing him in place.

The Kirlia's smirk grew more sinister as it lifted its arm into the air, bringing Zero up with it using Confusion. Zero immediately attempted to fight through the psychic energy holding him, but he could not move an inch. Half a second later, a deafening screech resounded through his skull as the psychic type energy began to inflict damage. Unable to help himself, Zero screamed.

"Zero!" Furno shouted. He turned to the Kirlia with a glare and inhaled deeply. Orion shouted at him to stop, but Furno paid the Lucario no mind and released a large burst of flames at the psychic-fairy type.

The emotion Pokémon glanced at the approaching flames and cut off its attack holding Zero. Zero landed onto his back with a thud just as a green shield erupted around the Kirlia, shielding it from Furno's flames.

Furno cut off his attack with a growl, watching as the Kirlia dropped its shield and stepped through the left-over flames. Eyes now on Furno, the Kirlia suddenly spun, waving its arms as it did so. Its body glowed with a multicolored light as a flurry of leaves, each glowing with the same light, appeared around the emotion Pokémon's body. It then swung its arms, causing the leaves to race towards the group.

It was that moment that Stride snapped out of his anger.

"Not again!" the Greninja suddenly shouted, jumping in front of the attack, summoning two blades of dark energy and lashing out at the leaves.

Stride's arms were a blur of blue and dark purple as he sliced through leaf after leaf. The Greninja carved a path through the virtual blizzard of leaves, destroying all leaves in front of him and causing the others to fly harmlessly around the group. When the attack finally died down, Stride was only panting slightly, his hate filled gaze still on the Kirlia. With a guttural growl, Stride launched forward, blades aimed for the Kirlia's neck.

"Stride, we don't have time!" Orion shouted, cursing when his words went ignored.

"Guys, we've got company!" Furno yelled, pointing to the group of Pokémon storming down the path they had taken.

Orion cursed again before grabbing both Zero and Furno around their waists and dashed towards the stairs. Behind them, the trio could here the enraged roars of the dungeon Pokémon. Once they had reached the stairs, Orion looked back at Stride. "Stride! We need to go, now!"

Stride looked away from the Kirlia, noticing the group of dungeon Pokémon entering the room. He glanced at the Kirlia again, his expression conflicted. He finally cursed loudly before pulling out an orb and slamming it into the ground. All at once a blinding light burst forth, filling the room with blinding light.

The Kirlia and dungeon Pokémon all cried out in surprise and pain, covering their eyes to block out the light. Orion, Zero and, Furno too averted their gazes and felt something slam into them, pushing them up the stairs. The last thing they saw was the orb's light going out and the Kirlia glaring at them before everything faded to black.


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

Press On

 **Temple of Memoria F4**

Color exploded against the all-consuming blackness. Slowly, the colors blended together before forming the landscape of some kind of beach-like mystery dungeon. Once more the group felt their feet sink into soft, grainy sand, though it was significantly cooler. Crystal blue waters surrounded them, stretching out, serving as the 'walls' of the dungeon. The sun was low, casting a brilliant orange light over the area.

"Sunset Beach," Orion said, his voice sounding relieved. "The beach of eternal sunset. We could have ended up in a worse place."

"So…this is an easy dungeon?" Furno asked.

"Well, not exactly," Orion said, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. "While this place is no Razed Ridge, this dungeon isn't 'easy'."

"Even so, we need to rest," Stride said, pulling his bag off his shoulder. Rummaging through his pack, the Greninja pulled out an orb, or rather, what appeared to be the same type of orb that they use regularly. Upon closer inspection, both Zero and Furno could see that the orb looked slightly larger than the others and had a distinct green tint to it. Before either of the younger Pokémon could inquire as to the orb's difference, Stride activated the item.

The orb flashed a bright toxic green before the light sudden rushed out like a wave. Zero and Furno released twin yelps of surprise as they watched the green light rush towards them. Instinctively, they brought up their arms in an attempt to block the wave of green, but the light passed by them harmlessly. Confused, they turned around to look at where the wave had gone and were surprised to see a large green dome surrounding them and everything in a twelve-foot radius.

"What's this?" Zero asked.

"A camouflage orb," Stride replied, giving the still glowing orb a once over before carefully placing it on the ground. "They're a new type of orb developed at the Genesect Division. They simulate the effects of a Kecleon's natural camouflage, minus the stripe. They make it so any Pokémon, dungeon or otherwise, can't see within the dome or hear what is going on within the dome."

"These orbs also have a shield, similar to a Protect, so that a dungeon Pokémon can't just wander into the dome," Orion added.

"Each orb has a life expectancy of twelve hours and can be deactivated and reactivated at will," Stride continued, sitting down onto the sand and pulling four oran berries out of his pack and handing them out to the group.

"How many do you have?" Furno asked curiously, following the Greninja's lead and sitting on the ground.

"Just the one," Stride responded.

"Seriously?! We only have one?!" Furno exclaimed.

"You have to understand, Furno," Orion began to explain, "these orbs are a recent development. Unlike regular orbs, which are produced and harvested from mystery dungeons themselves, these are created by Pokémon. They are of a limited supply and, according to the Metagross that invented them, they are incredibly hard to craft. Having just one is a miracle."

"So, we'll have to ration this orb out during our exploration of this dungeon," Zero reasoned, earning a nod from Stride.

"But didn't you say that you don't know how far this dungeon goes?" Furno asked.

"That's correct," Stride said grimly. "There is no telling how long we will be in this dungeon, meaning that there's a chance the orb could run out."

"And judging by how long it's taken us to just get to the fourth floor, we could be here for days," Orion said, finally sitting cross-legged, shortly followed by Zero.

"But if that's the case, we'll only be able to sleep once!" Furno exclaimed.

"No, we'll just have to cut back on sleep," Stride answered. "Three hours."

"Only three hours?" Zero asked incredulously. "I'm pretty sure we'll need more than that to be at our best."

"You're right, but we don't have much of a choice if we want to keep using this orb," Stride countered. "Though, you are correct when you say that we won't be at our best."

"That's why we've got a cheat," Orion jumped in, pulling out a strange purple and yellow acorn like berry.

"Chesto berries?" Zero frowned. "Don't they just wake you up when you're put to—Oh." Realization dawned on the Riolu.

"Exactly," Stride said, seeing the former human's expression.

"Um, did I miss something?" Furno hesitantly asked. "What do chesto berries have to do with anything?"

"Much like how the juices of an oran berry possess healing properties, chesto berry juice too have an effect. They release something akin to a burst of energy into the consumer, jolting their body with adrenaline. Enough as to awaken any sleeping Pokémon and keep them awake for hours depending on how much of the berry they eat."

"Wow, I never thought to use chesto berries like that," Furno said, giving the berry an appreciative look.

"Most don't, but in a place like this, we'll have to use everything at our disposal," Stride said. "Now finish your oran berries. After going through a place like Razed Ridged, we'll need our strength before we continue."

The group nodded and began to feast on their berries. However, just before Zero finished his berry, he paused. He was not sure what brought it on, but the Riolu found himself observing Stride. The ninja Pokémon looked relaxed at first glance, but as Zero looked closer he could see the telltale signs of tension in his body. His leg was twitching anxiously, his hand not holding his berry was curled into a fist, even his tongue twitched restlessly.

Zero frowned at this observation. _Why is Stride so tense?_ Zero pondered. _He couldn't think that we're in danger after he said that we are protected by the dome… Could it be because of that Kirlia from the last floor…?_

"Is there something you want to say to me, Zero?" Stride asked, causing Zero to jump. His eyes focused and saw that Stride was staring right at him. The Riolu had not even noticed that the water-dark type was looking at him.

"Well?" Stride asked, spurring Zero to speak.

"What was the deal with that Kirlia?" Zero blurted out. He immediately regretted it as he saw Stride's expression darken. "You don't have to answer," he added quickly, not wanting to inquire the Greninja's ire again. "If its personal, then—"

"It was Aster." Zero mouth snapped shut only to fall open again as his mind processed what Stride had just said.

"A-Aster?" Furno gaped.

"Yes," Stride confirmed solemnly. "Or rather, that was Aster when I first met him."

"When you first met him?" Furno parroted.

"Yes," Stride said, giving an almost unnoticeable incline of his head. "Back when Team Surge was just starting out, when it was just myself, Bolt, and one other, we took an escort mission to Razed Ridge. I was a Frogadier at the time and Bolt an Electrike."

"You hadn't even evolved and you willing went to Razed Ridge?!" Furno interrupted, his entire expression reading shocked, a sentiment that Zero mirrored as he remembered how strong the Pokémon from the previous floor was.

"We were stronger than most, not to mention we had enough items to keep us safe," Stride responded, almost nonchalantly. "We were young and ambitious, and, admittedly, arrogant. The mission only called for us to reach floor four. We thought we could handle it, and we could, at least…until we encountered Aster."

Stride paused, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "We weren't prepared for a Pokémon like him. He was ruthless and brutal, nearly killing us on several occasions before he did kill our client. We were forced to use an escape orb just to get away with our lives."

Furno could only stare at the Greninja, his hands covering his mouth and his eyes blown wide in abject horror. Orion looked away, he did not look surprised over the information, rather begrudgingly accepting, as if he was used to hearing about this sort of occurrence. Zero…

The Riolu frowned again. He shared Furno's horror at the what had happened, but he could not shake the feeling that there was something more. The pure aura of loathing that came from Stride when he saw 'Aster' was not something that could be caused by a failed mission or the death of a client, as bad as that sounded. It was unlikely that Stride had known the client for very long, so their death, while most likely painful to see, should not have brought on such anger. The Greninja was not telling the whole story.

"Stride…who was the other member of the team?" Zero asked hesitantly.

"…We should get going," Stride said, getting to his feet. He picked up the orb and shut it off, taking the shield down with it. "I want to keep going until we get through four floors."

Not even waiting to see if the rest of them were even on their feet, Stride had already begun to march down the closest path. Orion frowned at this action, but said nothing as he too got up and followed the Greninja. With both of the older Pokémon up and moving, Zero and Furno were prompted to get to their feet and jog to catch up.

-Resistance-

 **Temple of Memoria F7**

As Orion said, going through the next three floors was time consuming. They had gotten through the beach relatively easy, save for a few close encounters with a Stunfisk catching Furno off guard, but the other two posed more of a challenge, if only for their layout. The first being a chasm dungeon, with pit falls every five feet and the other being the inside of a volcano. Needless to say, it was with great relief when bubbling lava faded to black.

Only for a new horror to take its place.

Zero knew something was wrong before he even opened his eyes. The second solid ground formed under his feet, he felt a spike of horror come from his left. Alarmed, Zero's eyes snapped open to see Furno staring straight ahead, his eyes full of terror. Confused and alarmed over his friend's fear, Zero looked around at the floor's layout and immediately saw why.

They were standing in the center of a village. A very familiar village.

Briarwood Village.

"No," Furno whispered, completely and utterly horrified. As if all the energy had left him, Furno fell to his knees. "Why here? Why did we have to end up here?!"

Zero could not imagine what Furno was going through. Sure, the former human did not have any good memories of the place, what with him and Furno getting kidnapped, but it must be heartbreaking for the fire type. His parents had sold him out to Aster and, subsequently, the emperor. Being here was probably the worst place the chimp Pokémon could end up.

Zero turned away, wanting to give the Chimchar some semblance of privacy. Unfortunately, Orion had no such qualms. "I take it this place holds some significance to you," Orion stated bluntly. It was not a question.

Zero glared at the Lucario for his lack of tack, but the aura Pokémon's gaze was firmly on Furno. Said Chimchar did not respond, his eyes still wide and drinking in the replication of his home village. Stride noticed this and sighed. He walked over and crouched down directly in front of the dazed fire type.

"Furno." The Chimchar did not respond, his eyes staring through the Greninja. Stride frowned before snapping his fingers under the fire type's nose. "Furno."

Furno still did not respond, too lost within his own thoughts. It was a lost cause, Furno was practically catatonic. Zero was about to say this to the water-dark type when he noticed Stride raising his hand. Zero realized what was about to happen a second before it occurred.

 **SMACK!**

Furno was sent reeling to the ground, hand moving to clutch his red cheek. He stared up at the Greninja in a mix of shock and confusion. Stride just stared back impassively.

"Stride!" Zero exclaimed in alarm, not believing what he had just seen. Stride spared the Riolu a glance before turning back to the Chimchar.

"We don't have time for a pity party," the ninja Pokémon said coldly. "We have need to complete this dungeon and find out what this place holds."

"That's rather harsh, Stride," Orion said, only for the Greninja to turn on him.

"This place is meant to bring forth your memories, both the good and the bad, that is the trap. It weakens you psychologically so that you will be easier prey to the dungeon Pokémon. We don't have time for any distractions." Stride turned back to the Chimchar. "Get up. We need to keep moving."

With that, Stride turned and began to look around the village for the stairs. Orion looked like he wanted to say something as the Greninja passed, but decided against it. He instead turned to the duo and gave them an apologetic smile.

"At least this place is pretty small. We'll find the stairs before you know it!" Orion's smile wilted when he received no reaction from either Zero and Furno. Shaking his head, he too went off to assist Stride.

After a few second, Zero turned to his friend. "Furno? Are you—"

"I'm fine," Furno snapped, rising to his feet. He marched passed the Riolu, never once looking at him, but Zero could see barely restrained tears in his eyes.

Zero sighed at being rebuffed for trying to help his friend. With nothing else to do, he walked over to assist in the search of the stairs.

-Resistance-

As Stride predicted on the second floor, searching for the stairs was a much more arduous task than finding them on an actual dungeon floor. Despite Briarwood Village being relatively small, they still had to check every home, every room, and every other nook and cranny in the place and after three hours, they had nothing to show for it. The only consolation was that they did not encounter any dungeon Pokémon, though this was also rather disconcerting.

"This isn't right," Stride muttered aloud. "We haven't encountered a single dungeon Pokémon on this floor."

"Well, if this floor is based off of one of our memories, maybe the reason that there are no Pokémon here is because the memory of Briarwood Village that the dungeon took had no Pokémon in it," Orion suggested.

Stride started to shake his head in the negative, only to freeze. "Shit."

"Stride?" Orion questioned.

"The last time I was here was when…" Stride trailed off.

"When my parents sold me out to the emperor," Furno finished.

"And there's only one place we haven't checked," Stride added, looking off towards the distance where a familiar two-story house sat.

"Why did it have to be there?" Furno muttered to himself.

"No use drawing this out," Stride said, beginning to walk towards the house, prompting the other three to follow.

The trio marched towards the house with a certain amount of trepidation. As Stride had explained, should the floor be based off of their memories of the village, then they would most likely encounter Furno's parents, or rather the dungeon's imitation of his parents. There was also a chance that they could encounter Aster, something that worried Zero.

Glancing Furno, the Riolu noticed just how tense the fire type was. Furno's face, at first glance, seemed blank, but Zero could see the telltale clenching of the chimp Pokémon's jaw. His limbs were shaky and his fists were curled into tight fists. Behind him, his tail flame constantly sparked unsystematically.

"Furno…are you going to be okay?" Zero found himself asking.

"I'm fine," Furno responded bitingly. "Just worry about yourself."

Zero visibly winced, but backed off. Things were already tense between him and the Chimchar and Zero did not want to make things worse. Especially considering where they were and how this place was affecting Furno, so, for the moment, Zero would give the fire type space.

All too soon, the group made it to Furno's old house. It was quiet, unsettlingly so. There was no movement or any indication that there was anything living inside or around the house. Cautiously, Stride approached the door and reached for the door knob. The second he did, and opened the door, a blast of flames rushed out, engulfing the Greninja.

"STRIDE!" both Zero and Furno shouted upon seeing their mentor consumed by flames, fearing the worst. Their fears were misplaced as, a second later, Stride leapt out from the flames, his body hardly singed.

"Be on guard!" Stride shouted, glaring at the doorway. As he said this, two shapes leapt out from the burning doorway, landing several feet away from the quartet. Standing before the group, both slightly hunched over, their eyes burning with feral hate, stood two Infernape.

"Mom…Dad…" Furno gasped.

Appearing not to have heard Furno, both Infernape released twin roars, beating their fists against they chests, before exploding forward.

Stride jumped forward, meeting the dungeon Pokémon mid charge. He attacked the one on the right, sending the fire-fighting type crashing to the ground with a well-placed kick. He turned to attack the second only to be met with a Flare Blitz. While the attack had not done much damage, the force of the attack had sent him back several feet. As the second Infernape recovered from the recoil damage of its attack, Orion appeared at its side and slammed into its side with a force palm. The Infernape stumbled back, reeling from Orion's attack, but remained standing. It growled and leapt at Orion, but was stopped when Stride pounced on it with a Bounce.

With Zero and Furno, the other Infernape had recovered from Stride's initial attack and was baring down upon the younger members. "You ready, Furno?" Zero questioned, tensing in preparation. When he did not receive a response, Zero turned and saw Furno staring at the Infernape, his mouth open wide. "Furno?"

The Chimchar did not respond. He just kept his gaze on the Infernape, his eyes full of pain.

By that point, Zero had grown alarmed. "Furno! You need to snap out of it! It's just a dungeon Pokémon! It's not—"

"NAPE!" Before Zero could finish, a crushing blow impacted against the side of his skull, sending him flying across the ground, landing in a heap.

Dazed, Zero groggily lifted his head. The world was spinning all around him, but he could still see his partner facing off against his final evolution. As if a switch had been flipped, Zero's vision corrected itself and Zero began to struggle to his feet.

"M-Mom?" Furno stuttered, taking an unsteady step back.

The fire-fighting type gave no reaction to Furno's words and continued to approach. Furno stumbled backwards, falling onto his rear, staring up in fear at the Infernape, his eyes pleading. The Infernape showed no sympathy for the younger, raising its arm as a white glow began to encompass its fist. Just as the dungeon Pokémon was about to bring its fist down upon the smaller Pokémon when Zero appeared and slammed into the Infernape's side with a combination of Quick Attack and Force Palm.

The fire-fighting type, caught off guard, was sent crashing to the ground several feet away. Before it could rise to its feet, Zero quickly pulled out an orb and aimed it at the Pokémon. The orb flashed brightly as a deep blue light settled upon the Infernape, appearing to double its weight, making it more difficult for the Pokémon to move. Seeing that the Infernape was, at the moment, incapacitated, Zero turned to Furno.

The Chimchar was still staring straight ahead as if the Infernape were still in front of him. Zero immediately crouched down and shook his friend's shoulders. "Furno? Furno!"

The fire type gave no reactions, his eyes wide, his pupils pinpoints. Zero could feel the fear, hurt, anger, betrayal, and all sorts of different emotions swirling around the Chimchar. There were so many conflicting thoughts that Zero was unsurprised that the Chimchar was catatonic, but there was not any time for Furno to work through his emotions. The slow orb Zero had used on the Infernape would not last much longer.

Mind racing, Zero struggled to think of how he could snap Furno out of his state. All of a sudden, his conversation with Orion came to mind.

"Intent…" Zero mumbled. The ability to enforce his own emotions on another. As a Riolu, Zero was already familiar with releasing his emotions into the air, so directing them into a singular target should not be too difficult for him.

With no other option, Zero focused in on himself, drawing forth on a feeling of calm, and an inadvertent touch of desperation and worry, and pressed it outwards, allowing his emotions to blanket the air around them. Focusing harder, Zero imagined pushinghis emotions _into_ the fire type.

With eyes clenched tight, Zero continued to focus on the task, not sure if he was even making any progress. Distantly, the Riolu could here the sounds of the Infernape getting back to his feet, and Zero found himself growing more frantic. A thin bead of sweat rolled down his neck. He could practically feel the fire-fighting type breathing down his neck, but he still did not stop in his task.

Just when it seemed that Zero's attempt had failed, the cloud of swirling emotion around Furno was torn asunder, replaced by a steadily growing calm. Zero's eyes snapped open as Furno gasped, his eyes dilating. His eyes found Zero's, confusion creeping into his expression.

"Zero?"

"Furno!" Zero almost laughed, relief flooding his body. Said relief quickly faded as Zero remembered their situation. "Furno, these aren't your parents. Whatever pain and hurt you feel towards your family does not belong here."

Furno looked taken a back. He opened his mouth to say something, but Zero cut him off. "No, listen. This place is a dungeon. Those Pokémon are dungeon Pokémon. Treat them as such. Zero winced at the bluntness of his statement, but he stood firm as he stared at his partner. Furno kept the Riolu's gaze for a second before nodding. Zero nodded in response and they both turned towards the Infernape, who had just broken free of the slow orb's effects.

The Infernape, seeing that Zero, the one that had kept it down for so long, glared. It gave a grumbly roar, its eyes flashing angrily at the duo. It then inhaled deeply before releasing a powerful Flamethrower at the duo.

Glancing at each other, both members of Team Dawn Breaker nodded towards one another and jumped away from the attack, moving to opposite sides. Moving as one, both Pokémon charged forward towards the Infernape, Zero pulling slightly ahead.

The flame Pokémon roared at the duo as they approached. With Zero being the closest, the Infernape's gaze locked onto him as it leapt forward, its fist pulled back to crush the Riolu into the ground. Using Quick Attack, Zero dashed to the side, avoiding the punch and responded by slamming his shoulder into the fire-fighting type's leg. The Pokémon stumbled a little, not falling, but hardly standing. As it was trying to regain its balance, it was unprepared for Furno attacking.

Furno, as he ran, had used Bulk Up, pushing attentional energy into his body, causing the muscles in his limbs and chest to double in size. He then curled into a ball, flames engulfing his body as he did so, and blasted off towards the unsteady Infernape. Unprepared, the dungeon Pokémon was hit full force by the empowered Flame Wheel. While it resisted the fire, the force of Furno's attack, coupled with the Chimchar's powered up form, sent the dungeon Pokémon skidding back.

With the Infernape even more off-balanced, Zero summoned a powerful wind around him. Glaring at the larger Pokémon, the former human released a loud shout before releasing a blade of blue wind at the larger Pokémon.

With no way to dodge, Zero's attack met its mark, the wind exploding with a violent burst of fighting type energy. The Infernape fell, its body smoking slightly, but got up to its feet almost instantly. Hardly looking winded, the dungeon Pokémon glared at the two smaller Pokémon. Its body shook with pure anger as it screeched loudly. It jumped into the air to attack the duo, but was sent flying by a high-pressured blast of water.

The Infernape screamed in pain as it was thrown across the field, crashing into the side of the house. As it attempted to return to its feet, Orion appeared behind it and swung his bone staff into the back of the flame Pokémon's head with a dull thud. The Infernape fell forward and did not get back up.

"You two did well holding off that Infernape," Stride congratulated. It probably would have sounded better had the Greninja actually been looking at them and not move to investigate the house.

"Don't mind him," Orion said, walking over. "He—"

"—just wants to get through this dungeon," Zero finished, waving off the Lucario's worries. He glanced at Furno and saw that the Chimchar was resolutely looking away. It appeared that, while there had been progress, things were still stressed between them.

"The stairs are here!" Stride called from inside the house. He poked his head out from the ruined doorway and glared at the trio. "Let's go!"

Orion rolled his eyes at the Greninja's impatience, but ushered the duo from Team Dawn Breaker into the house.

-Resistance-

 **Temple of Memoria F8**

Once more, empty blackness bled away to bright colors. All around the quartet was green. High grasses and large lush trees surrounded the group, the sun high up in the sky. It was almost picturesque.

"Lush Forest?" Furno questioned aloud. "Could be worse."

"This seems as good of a place to set up camp as any," Orion stated. "We really lucked out ending up in a relatively easy dungeon."

While the Orion and Furno were expressing their joy at ending up in Lush Forest of all places while beginning to set up camp, Zero found his gaze drawn to Stride. The Greninja in question had a scowl marring their features, the attention fully on the trees surrounding them.

"Stride? Is something wrong?" The ninja Pokémon regarded the Riolu, his attention still partially on the trees.

"The trees," Stride said after a while. "The trees are different than normal."

"Different how?" Zero frowned, his ears twitching slightly. He could have sworn he just heard something.

"Look closely," Stride said, plucking a leaf from one of the trees. "These leaves aren't as green as they normally are. They are darker yet duller than normal. They even are drier."

Zero's ears twitched again. _There it is again!_ Zero thought, glancing around. _I'm sure of it. Just now…I heard buzzing!_

"These leaves are in the process of changing color, a sign that this forest is at the start of Fall," Stride explained.

"What does that mean for us?" Zero asked distractedly, searching for the source of the buzzing which he swore was getting louder.

"During the Fall season, Lush Forest…changes," Stride began. "The Pokémon inhabitants become more aggressive and dangerous as they all move to store food for winter. However, that's not the worst of it."

 _That buzzing's getting closer!_ Zero thought, looking around wildly. _Where is it coming from?!_

"It is during this time that the Kakuna that live within the dungeon will evolve into Beedrill," Stride continued, ignorant to the Riolu's thoughts.

Zero caught a glimpse of yellow from the corner of his eye. It was moving very rapidly through the trees, making it almost impossible to track.

"Beedrill, being one of the most aggressive Pokémon, especially those from a dungeon, make Lush Forest incredibly dangerous during this time. If it really is Fall here, we have to be—"

"LOOK OUT!" Zero shouted, the same moment a yellow blur raced out from the trees, heading towards Furno.

The Chimchar turned just in time to meet the burning red gaze of a Beedrill, its drill arms poised to skewer the shell-shocked fire type. Too caught off guard to move out of the way, Furno could only begin to bring his arms up and look away.

 **Shulck!**

The sickening sound of flesh being torn into filled the dungeon, followed by dead silence. Reluctantly, Furno opened his eyes, expecting to see himself impaled. He was shocked to see that he was perfectly fine. His attention was drawn in front of him by the sound of dripping. Before him the green grass had been stained crimson as something red dripped consistently upon the blades of grass.

Curious, yet fearful, Furno found himself looking up towards the source of the dripping…

…only to wish he had kept his eyes closed a second later.

Standing directly in front of Furno was Zero, the Beedrill's drill arm plunged deeply into the former human's chest.

"Z-Zero?" Furno whispered, as if he was afraid to speak.

Slowly, Zero turned his head, his glazed red eyes finding Furno's horrified dark-gray. "Fur…no…"

The Riolu's words slurred as he found all his strength leave his body. He slowly fell back, his body falling off of the bug type's arm, and fell to the ground. The last thing he saw before darkness engulfed his vision was Furno's tear-filled face.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

Reforged

Everything around Zero was black, an ever-swirling void of darkness. It felt like he was floating in water, yet he could breathe.

 _Where am I,_ he wondered. _What is this place?_

He tried to move his head to observe his surroundings, but he found he could not move. When he attempted to move his arms and legs, he found that they would respond either. He was completely paralyzed.

 _What's going on? Why can't I move?!_

The former human began to panic, trying desperately to move his body. After several minutes without so much as a twitch from his body, he finally gave up, succumbing to the current of the darkness.

Time was a blur. What could have been minutes could have been days, days could have been weeks and through all of it, Zero could only float in the darkness. He couldn't tell which way was up or down, right or left, he could only float aimlessly. Unable to more anything but his eyes, Zero could just stare blankly at the never ending darkness. His mind began to wander, trying to recall what had led him to his current situation, but he came up blank.

Just as Zero thought he would go mad from the silence and his bodies incapability of moving, a light shone in the darkness above him. It was small, hardly the size of a berry. It gently floated down towards him, alighting onto his chest.

The light enthralled the Riolu. The pulsing orb emanated warmth that gripped his very core, relaxing him and filling him with security. The orb suddenly pulsed with greater ferocity than previously before bursting forth with a blinding light.

Zero clenched his eyes shut, the light still incredibly bright even from closed eyes. The light persisted for a while longer before dimming. The light was still present, but it was nowhere near as blinding as it was.

Tentatively, Zero cracked a solitary eye open before both of his eyes fell open. Both wide with shock.

No longer was he floating in darkness, instead, he was floating in light. Colors exploded all around him, constantly shifting from reds to blues to greens. It was beautiful and, somehow, familiar.

" **It is not your time.** "

 _Huh?_ Surprise filtered through the young Riolu as a voice spoke out, appearing with no source.

" **It is not your time,** "the voice repeated. The voice was heavy and deep, coming from all directions including from inside Zero's mind. It was strange, but, like the strange place he was currently in, the voice struck a chord within Zero. Like he had heard it before.

 _Who's there?_ Zero asked in his mind, unable to open his mouth.

" **My name is not important,** " the voice said. " **You must return. Your task is not yet complete.** "

 _Task? What Task?! Is this_ task _why I'm a Pokémon? Why am I here? Why am I like this? Please, tell me!_

The voice was silent for a while, making Zero think that they had left. It came as a surprise from him when the voice spoke. " **So many questions, but none I can answer. You must discover the answers for yourself, young one, but take,** " the voice added, noticing the crestfallen expression on the Riolu's expression, " **I have faith that you will not only find your purpose, but succeed in your goal.** "

As the voice said this, Zero's vision began to waver, his mind suddenly becoming fuzzy. The glowing lights warping and blurring together. Zero was struggling to keep his eyes open as the voice spoke once more.

" **You are more important to this world than you realize. You who as the weight of such a heavy fate.** "

Zero's eyes begin to flutter closed, straining to keep himself awake.

" **I expect great things from you, Atlas.** "

Unable to fight it anymore, Zero closed his eyes and succumbed to sleep.

-Resistance-

Zero's eyes snapped open, sitting up with a loud gasp. His heart was pounding in his chest, sweat pouring down his face. "What…?"

"Zero! You're awake!" a voice suddenly shouted.

Zero turned towards the source of the voice only to be tackled to the ground by an emotional Chimchar. "Furno?" he slurred. "What's going on?"

Furno didn't respond. He just clutched the Riolu tightly, further confusing the former human.

"Its good to see you awake, Zero." Zero looked up and saw Stride and Orion approaching.

"Stride? Orion?"

"Good to see you up, pup," Orion said with a smirk. Zero frowned when he detected something hidden behind the Lucario's smile.

 _Worry?_ Zero wondered. _Why would he be worried?_

"How are you feeling?" Stride asked, crouching down to Zero's level. "Any light-headedness? Nausea? Fatigue?"

"Um…maybe a little soreness?" Zero said uncertainly, confused as to what was going on. "Why do you ask?"

Furno let go of Zero, backing away a few feet and staring at the emanation Pokémon. "Zero…do you not remember what happened?"

"What…happened?" Zero frowned, his mind racing. "We just arrived in Lush Forest and…"

Suddenly, it all came rushing back to Zero. The forest, the buzzing, the…Beedrill…

"That Beedrill…it got me. It…stabbed me!" Zero realized, immediately looking down at his chest, however, aside from the fur around his chest being covered in dried blood, he had no wound. "I'm okay?"

"One of your reviver seeds activated when you went down," Orion explained, holding up the two halves of a large seed Zero immediately recognized. "It healed you, but you've been unconscious for several hours. We thought it best if we get to a safer floor."

As Orion said this, Zero glanced around, realizing that they were indeed in a different environment. The looked to be in the middle of pathway, still in a forest, but the trees were much darker in color. The grass they were currently sitting on was also much shorter than Lush Forest. He also noticed that the green dome of the camouflage orb had been erected around them.

"We've been under the dome for four hours," Stride said, noticing Zero's gaze. "We have about seven left before the orb fails."

"Oh," Zero mumbled, looking at his wound, or lack thereof. "How come I was out for so long? Shouldn't the reviver seed have brought me back from unconsciousness when it activated?"

Silence.

Zero frowned, noting the uneasiness that pervaded the atmosphere. "What's…what's wrong?"

Orion seemed to find the grass suddenly very interesting while Furno turned away, neither of them able to meet the Riolu's eyes. Even Stride seemed reluctant to meet his charge's gaze.

"What's wrong?" Zero asked, slightly more aggressive than before. "I know you're hiding something from me!"

"Zero…" Stride began carefully. "Reviver seeds only work on Pokémon that have died."

Zero's heart plummeted. "Wh-What?"

"Reviver seeds, aren't consumable like other seeds," Stride explained. "While they can be consumed to recover health and energy when you are at the brink of death, they only activate by themselves when a Pokémon nearby…perishes. They crack open, releasing a golden light that enters the Pokémon and brings them back to life."

"I…died?" Zero voice was hardly above a whisper.

Stride regarded the Riolu carefully. "Yes…you did."

Zero swallowed thickly, the weight of the Greninja's words baring down upon him. _I really died. That Beedrill killed me! I…_

"Zero, you need to calm down," Orion said. "You're hyperventilating."

 _I am?_ Zero asked himself. He brought his paws to his chest and felt his heart beating rapidly, his chest expanding at an equally fast pace.

"Deep breaths, Zero," Orion said, placing a paw on the young Riolu's shoulder. "Just calm yourself."

Zero found himself nodding without even realizing it. Slowly, he began to regain control over his breathing. Orion, seeing this, patted his shoulder reassuringly. "There you go, just relax. You've been through an ordeal, just relax."

"So…I really died?" Zero asked tentatively.

"Yes, you did," Stride answered before Orion could.

"Stride. You don't need to be so blunt," Orion growled.

"He doesn't need us to pussyfoot around the subject," Stride stated. "He died, but the reviver seed saved him. Simple as that."

Orion grumbled under his breath. Zero glanced at the seed pieces that had been dropped on the ground. "So, that thing really saved me?"

"Yes," Stride responded.

"That seems…really powerful," he commented. "How come they're not more widely known. Why aren't they used in battles with the emperor's soldiers?"

"Like orbs and other seeds, reviver seeds are a byproduct of the magic used to create a dungeon," Stride explained. "They are made to give an advantage to an explorer, why dungeons create these items is still unclear, it's almost as if this is a game to some being and they are throwing explorers a bone. Regardless, these items cannot be used outside of a mystery dungeon."

"Oh," Zero responded, looking back to the ground. "How many do we have left?"

"One," Furno answered immediately. "We have one left."

"Where did you guys get reviver seeds anyway?" Orion questioned. "They're supposed to be crazy expensive and rare."

"They were in our pack when Angela teleported us," Zero answered.

"Angela must have foreseen that we would need them," Stride reasoned.

"But does that mean…" Horror bled into Zero's face as a horrible possibility crossed his mind. "If she saw Furno giving me a reviver seed after fighting Registeel and another when I…died, then did she see someone else dying?"

There was a long beat of silence between the group before Stride answered. "I wouldn't be too concerned about that. Angela may have packed more because there was a _possibility_ that we could die. She has said it herself, the future isn't always clear. There are many branching paths that are constantly interchanging. There is just enough chance that we won't need the other two than there is that we will need them."

Zero nodded, excepting the water-dark type's words. Silence persisted for several more minutes. Occasionally, Zero would glance up at Furno, trying to catch his eye, but the chimp Pokémon stared resolutely at the ground. After a while, Stride got to his feet.

"We've stayed here for too long. We need to keep moving."

"Zero's in no condition to move yet," Orion said, getting to his feet. "He was just brought back!"

Stride glanced at the Riolu, looking at his bloody fur. "We can't afford to wait much longer, but I see your point. Zero, Furno, stay here under the camouflage orb while Orion and I search for the stairs." He reached into his pack and handed Zero an orb. "If you need us, use this rollcall orb. We'll be teleported to you in an instant. We'll come find you two when we find the stairs."

Zero nodded and Furno grunted, showing that he had heard the Greninja. With a nod, Stride left the safety of the dome, Orion following close behind, leaving Zero and Furno alone.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the duo. Furno still resolutely avoided Zero's gaze and Zero himself was lost in his thoughts. The vision he had when he was…dead plagued him. The voice that had talked to him had spoken of a task that he had to complete.

 _But what is the task?_ Zero asked internally. _What could be so important that a human had to be turned into a Pokémon? And what was with that name? Atlas?_ Zero frowned in thought. _Was it my—_

"Why'd you do it?"

Zero blinked, turning to look at his friend. "Huh?"

"Why'd you jump in front of me like that?" Furno asked, his eyes staring at the ground.

"What do you…"

"You know what I mean!" Furno snapped, rounding on the Riolu, his eyes suspiciously wet. "You jumped in front of an attack that…killed you!" he choked at his last words, but quickly regained steam. "Why? Why would you do that?!"

"I…" Zero trailed off, not really knowing how to answer. "I don't know. My body just moved on its own."

Furno stared at Zero, his expression incredulous. Not a second later, the fire type let out a muffled scream of anger. He then got to his feet and stormed out from under the dome in the opposite direction Stride and Orion went.

Zero, alarmed, leapt to his feet. "Furno!" he called, but the chimp Pokémon ignored him, moving further down the path. With no other choice, Zero clambered to his feet and raced after his friend, grabbing the camouflage orb and deactivating it as he went.

"Furno!" Zero shouted, running after the fire type.

"Leave me alone, Zero," Furno responded, refusing to even look at the Riolu.

Growling under his breath, Zero raced forward, grabbing the fire type by the arm. Furno hissed at the action, yanking his arm out of the emanation Pokémon's grip and glared at him. "What?!"

"What's your problem?!" Zero demanded.

"My problem? _My_ problem?!" Furno laughed cruelly. "My problem is your still hovering over me!"

Zero was taken aback. "What?"

"You're still acting like my keeper!" Furno yelled. "In every fight, I see you watching me, making sure I don't mess up!"

"That's not—" Zero tried to argue, but Furno cut him off.

"You may have stopped intervening in my fights, but you're still watching over me, and I don't need it!"

"Furno, I look out for everyone on the team. We all do. It's part of being part of a team."

"There's being part of a team and worrying about your team and being an overbearing watcher!" Furno countered. "You watching me so much that you don't even mind your surroundings! How many times have you gotten hurt because you were so focused on me?"

That comment caused Zero's mouth to snap shut, his argument dying in his throat. Seeing this, Furno pressed on. "Exactly. You trust me so little that you willingly let yourself get hurt just to make sure I'm okay. That may seem noble to you, but it hurts the team! And now, you go and do…this."

Furno threw up his hands, words failing him. He whipped around and began storming off again. Zero recovered from his stupor and was quick to follow, calling out to his friend. "Furno, wa—"

Zero cut himself off when the ground underneath them sagged. Furno turned around, eyes wide. He opened his mouth to say something before the ground fell out from under them. The duo's shouts trailing down into the darkness the fell into.

-Resistance-

The duo landed onto the harsh thud. With twin groans, Team Dawn Breaker shakily got to their feet.

"What happened?" Furno questioned, his voice slightly slurred from disorientation.

"I think we fell down some kind of pitfall trap," Zero answered, looking up to see a wide hole they had fallen down, the light from up above being the only thing allowing them to see. Glancing around, Zero saw that he and Furno had fallen down into a heavily shadowed cavern.

"This isn't _just_ a pitfall," Furno said, regaining his bearings. "This is a cavern!"

"Which begs the question; why is there a cavern with a pitfall?" Zero questioned. "It doesn't make sense that there would be something like this in a dungeon unless…" Zero's eyes widened in horror. "It's a trap!"

The second Zero shouted this a sudden shrill shriek echoed through the cavern. A blast of wind filled with glowing white rings then tore from the far corner of the cavern heading straight towards the duo. Unprepared, the attack slammed into Zero and Furno.

The second the attack hit, the shriek intensified exponentially. They were forced to cover their ears to attempt and lessen the deafening sound, even as they were thrown through the air. Zero and Furno slammed into the opposite wall, the blast of wind and sound, thankfully, ceasing.

Groaning, Zero got to his feet having recovered first and looked at his attacker, blanching when he saw more than one. In front of him, stepping out from the shadows, were nine individuals; a Sunflora, Chimecho, Diglett, Dugtrio, Croagunk, Loudred, Corphish, Chatot, and, standing in the middle of the group, was a Wigglytuff.

"Wh-What's this?" Furno asked, his voice trembling as he saw the nine Pokémon in front of them.

"An ambush," Zero growled, tensing in preparation.

"But that shouldn't be possible!" Furno exclaimed. "No dungeon Pokémon is smart enough to set up an ambush! Even if this is a memory, they would have to be sentient to come up with this!"

"They probably were," Zero said. "Just look at them, there's no way all of their species are indigenous to this forest." Before either of them could say anything else, the Wigglytuff shrieked.

"Yoom-Tah!"

At the shout, as if it were a signal, the other eight Pokémon attacked.

The Sunflora and Corphish struck first, unleashing a flurry of razor sharp leaves and a storm of bubbles respectively. Zero and Furno were able to jump away just in time, but they landed straight into the Loudred. The normal type swung both of its arms using Pound, striking both resistance members, sending them both tumbling through the air.

Hitting the ground with a thud, Zero and Furno didn't have time to rest as a Bulldoze was heading straight for them. They were able to roll out of the way of the shockwave in time, but were too late to dodge a second and stronger one from striking them.

Once more, the duo was slammed into the cavern wall with a loud crack. Furno, having taken more damage, took longer to recover, but Zero was back to his feet. Tired of being on the defensive, Zero summoned a quick Vacuum Wave and flung it at the Loudred. Just as the fighting type attack was about to hit, the Chatot flew to intercept the attack.

What looked like a mirror suddenly formed in front of the normal-flying type and, much to Zero's shock, a second Vacuum Wave erupted from it heading straight towards his own. The two attacks slammed into one another and dispelled into a harmless gust of wind.

"What the—" Before Zero could finish his thought, he was forced to duck under a vicious Poison Jab sent by the Croagunk. What ensued was a frantic dance as Zero tried to best to not get hit by the poison-fighting type's jabs. Eventually, the Riolu's luck ran out as the Croagunk scored a clean hit to his ribs.

A startled gasp of pain made its way out of the former human's throat, his body lurching to the side. Before he could recover, the toxic mouth brought down his other arm down with a brutal Brick Break to Zero's back. The pure fighting type slammed into the ground, the air being forcibly torn from his lungs. The Croagunk then kicked him, sending the Riolu crashing next to the Chimchar.

"Damn," Zero cursed, his back shouting in pain as he pushed himself to his feet.

"This isn't good," Furno groaned, getting to his feet as well. "We can't fight them alone. Get the rollcall orb."

"Right," Zero agreed. He quickly pulled the pack from his back. As he made to open it, a multicolored beam shot through the air and slammed into the bag. Thankfully, the material that the pack was made from was highly durable, but the pack was knocked from Zero's paws.

Zero stared at his paws for a second, not comprehending why they were empty. A beat later, he dove for the bag, but was forced to dodge, along with Furno, as several clumps of muck came racing towards them. A second later, several large stones appeared from the sky and fell on top of the bag, burying it. Zero and Furno stared at the rock pile in horror.

"D-Did that just happen?" Furno asked, still stunned.

"How did dungeon Pokémon know to do that?" Zero wondered, turning to look at the group. "They shouldn't be this smart!"

"Clearly, _they_ are," Furno growled. "Looks like we'll have to go on the attack if we want to get out of here."

Zero nodded, not looking thrilled at by the idea. "We're out numbered here, so we'll have to—" Before Zero could finish, Furno dashed forward, curling into a Flame Wheel. Zero cursed before dashing in after his friend, only to be stopped by the Croagunk. "Oh, for crying out loud…"

As Zero dealt with the Croagunk, Furno continued forward, racing towards the Sunflora. Before he could reach the sunflower Pokémon, the Corphish suddenly jumped in the way, one of its pincers glowing white. Furno was forced to abandon his target and swerve to avoid the Crabhammer. Unfortunately, that led him directly in the path of the Dugtrio.

The mole Pokémon released a shockwave across the ground towards the flaming wheel. The ground type attack slammed into Furno, causing his attack to falter and for him to uncurl with a groan of pain.

"Furno!" Zero shouted, seeing his friend on the ground. He quickly sent the poison-fighting type away with a strong Force Palm and made to run towards his friend, only for his body to be coated by a familiar blue glow.

The Chimecho chimed almost happily as it caught the former human in the grip of its Confusion. Zero gritted his teeth in pain as psychic energy stabbed at his nerves. With a swing of its ribbon-like tail, the wind chime Pokémon flung the fighting type directly into the Chatot's flight path.

Tumbling through the air, Zero was helpless as the music note Pokémon slammed into him again and again with consecutive Aerial Ace attacks. With a final strike, the Chatot sent Zero crashing to the ground. As he fell, the Diglett came up behind Zero and hit him with a powerful Slash, eliciting a sharp cry from the emanation Pokémon.

Furno, who had gotten up at that point, saw his teammate fall, but before he could do anything, he was tackled by the Loudred. Hitting the ground with a hard thud, Furno immediately turned and let loose a jet of flames at the big voice Pokémon. The flames met their mark, causing the normal type to stumble, but it remained standing. With a shout, the Loudred released an Echoed Voice, the sound waves exploding against the ground in front of Furno, the resulting explosion, sending the fire type into the air.

Crying out, Furno slammed into the ground, skipped, and rammed into Zero as he was getting up. The duo laid there, stunned, for several seconds before struggling to get up, winding up in a tangled mess of limbs. Before they could fully separate, the ground underneath them cracked and both the Diglett and Dugtrio burst from the ground, ramming into the duo and sending them skywards.

The duo landed in a heap across the cavern, both of them covered in bruises and scratches. "This isn't working," Zero said, hissing pain as he pushed himself onto one knee.

"No kidding," Furno griped, clutching his stomach.

"We need to start working together better if we want to get out of this alive," Zero said. When he didn't get a response, he turned to look at Furno. "Furno?"

The Chimchar didn't respond, his eyes holding unease. Growing impatient, Zero spoke again. "Furno, I'm serious. You can't go rushing into battle like that. I can't watch your back if you keep—"

"Watch my back?" Furno cut in. He turned to glare at the Riolu. "I don't need you to watch my back!"

"Furno—"

"No! I don't need you to keep looking out for me!" Furno shouted over Zero. "I can handle myself. I'm not weak!"

At his final shout, Furno froze, his eyes wide with shock over what he had just said. Zero too was shell-shocked. "Furno?"

Furno opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when a bright light lit up the cavern. Turning, Zero and Furno saw the Sunflora's face was glowing bright yellow, sunlight being absorbed into them. Zero's eyes widened in realization a second before it happened.

"Move!" Zero's shout came too late as the Sunflora unleashed a massive Solar Beam at the duo.

The blast of pure solar energy screamed towards the two resistance members, temporarily blinding them. Months of training with Stride and Monty prompted the duo to move, narrowly avoiding the powerful grass type attack which violently struck the ground.

Dirt and debris exploded in every direction, filling the entire cavern with smoke and dust. Coughing violently, Zero shakily got to his feet, glancing at Furno who was still on the ground next to him. "We need to come up with a plan," Zero said. "This smokescreen won't last forever so we'll need to figure something out before then…"

"I'm sorry." Zero cocked his head at his friend's words.

"Furno?"

"I'm too weak," the fire type said, looking down at the ground. "I'm too weak to be part of the resistance."

"What?" Zero asked, taken aback.

"That's why you've been constantly watching me, isn't it?" Furno asked. "You know I'm weak, that's why you're always watching."

"No, that's not—"

"You don't have too lie," Furno interrupted, his voice devoid of emotion. "I know it's true. It's just…I've always wanted to be part of the resistance, to fight against the emperor and everything he's done, but I see now that it was just a childish dream."

The fire type gave a bitter laugh. "I thought that there wasn't any real threat that I couldn't handle, that this was all just a silly game, but it's not. All of this, everything we do, its dangerous and you realized that before me," he said, looking up at Zero with misty eyes. "That's why you were always watching me, but I didn't see it until you…"

Furno turned away again, unable to look his friend in the eye. "I was an idiot to think I could be part of the resistance."

Zero felt awful. He had inadvertently brought on this lack of self-confidence. His over protectiveness had made his friend doubt his own abilities.

"Furno, none of that is true," Zero began, pressing on quickly when he saw his friend open his mouth. "No, listen. You're strong, don't doubt that, especially after all the times you've saved my hide. You were right before, I didn't trust you. I didn't trust you to watch out for yourself because…because I let my own protectiveness get the better of me."

Zero looked away, guilt eating at him. Around him, he noted that the smoke was starting to dissipate, but he didn't care. "I let my own fear of what could happen cause me to become overbearing. We're supposed to be a team and look out for one another, but I took it too far. I let my fear keep me from trusting in your strength."

He turned back around, looking Furno in the eye. "Furno, can you ever forgive me?"

Furno stared wide-eyed at his friend's confession, a thousand thoughts running through his head. After several second, he smiled. "I guess we were both idiots, huh?"

Zero chuckled lightly, smiling in return. "I guess so."

A loud shriek drew Team Dawn Breaker's attention back towards the group of dungeon Pokémon. The smoke had completely disappeared, giving a clear view of the still relatively fresh dungeon Pokémon. The Wigglytuff, who had, up until that point, remained still during the battle, stepped forward and lifted a brow, almost as if challenging the duo.

Zero and Furno glanced at one another, a silent conversation passing between them. Zero then smirked and offered a paw to his friend. "What do you say we show these guys just what Team Dawn Breaker can do?"

Furno glanced at the paw for a second before grabbing it and grinning. "Let's."

Zero nodded and helped Furno to his feet. They stared down the nine dungeon Pokémon, eyes narrowed in determination. "We need to strike fast and hard," Zero said. "We work together and watch each other's back. Both of us."

A flicker of uncertainty flashed across Furno's face. "Zero…"

"Both of us," Zero repeated forcibly. He looked at his friend and offered a sincere smile. "I trust you, Furno."

The fire type's eyes widened for a second before a fire was lit from behind obsidian orbs. "Right then. I won't let you down!"

Zero grinned in response. "Good, now then, let's do this!" With that, the duo charged.

Furno moved faster, curling up and coating himself in flames, once more targeting the Sunflora. Like before, the Corphish jumped in the way, seeking to block or redirect the attack with a Crabhammer, but before it could, it was struck by a blue blur. Zero, having used Quick Attack, had come around the side and slammed into the Corphish, knocking it out of the way and leaving a clear path to the Sunflora.

The sunflower Pokémon, in a fit of panic, launched a storm of leaves at the encroaching Flame Wheel, but they were burned to ashes before they could do any damage. Now defenseless, the Sunflora was struck by the Chimchar's attack. The grass type released a shrill scream as it was thrown into the air, flames licking along its body. Not having time to pat himself on the back, Furno had to jump out of the way as the Loudred came up behind him and tried to use Stomp to crush him into the dirt.

On the other side of the field, Zero dodged a Vice Grip from the Corphish and knocked it back with a Force Palm. Sensing a presence behind him, Zero ducked down, narrowly avoiding a Poison Jab from the Croagunk. Still crouched, the Riolu spun around and grabbed the toxic mouth Pokémon's still outstretched arm. Bouncing to his feet, Zero turned again, pulling on the Croagunk's arm as he did and threw it over his shoulder and towards the Corphish, who was just getting up.

Both dungeon Pokémon gave cries of surprise and annoyance as they slammed into each other. As they tried to get up, they saw Zero surrounded by a large pillar of blue winds. With a savage grin, Zero launched the Vacuum Wave at the two prone Pokémon, engulfing them both in an explosion of winds and dust.

As he observed the damage, the fur on the back of Zero's neck stood suddenly on end, prompting him to jump to his right. His intuition proved to be correct as the ground he had been standing on cracked open, the Dugtrio popping out. Still in the air, Zero summoned another Vacuum Wave and hurled it at the mole Pokémon, only for the trio to burrow underground once more.

Cursing lightly, Zero landed on the ground, but before he could move, the ground under him erupted. This time, the Diglett shot up, slamming into the former human and sending him to the ground. Slightly dazed, Zero hardly had the time to roll out of the way as the Dugtrio came out of the ground with Dig once more.

Scrambling to his feet, Zero was forced to anticipate and dodge as the two ground types preceded to take part in a reverse whack-a-mole game with the fighting type. Every time Zero would attempt to launch an attack at them, the would duck under the ground and the other would strike at him from a random direction.

"Furno!" Zero shouted after dodging another Dig.

In a second, Furno was there. He stood over one of the holes and sent a powerful Flamethrower into their depths. All around the area, from all the holes that the Diglett and Dugtrio had made, flames spewed forth as Furno's attack raced through the tunnels the two dungeon Pokémon had made. When Furno finally cut off his attack, the two moles came up from the ground, their bodies singed and eyes glazed.

From behind, the Loudred once more attacked the Chimchar, mouth open and dark energy prepped from a Crunch. Just before it could get its jaws around the fire type, Zero leapt over the fire type, slamming into the Loudred, snapping its mouth shut. Then, with a haymaker-like strike, Zero struck the normal type with a Force Palm.

The explosive strike caused the big voice Pokémon to spin violently. It stumbled away, its vision wobbling, as such, it was unable to dodged a Bulk Up empowered Thunder Punch from Furno. The Loudred collapsed in a heap.

The Chimecho, angered by its allies' defeat, moved forward, unleashing a Psybeam at Furno. Before the multicolored beam could strike the fire type, Zero was there. With his paw cloaked with ghostly energy, he tore through the attack with a Shadow Claw. Running forward, Zero continued to cut through the attack as he raced towards the psychic type. The Chimecho squealed, ceasing its attack, but before it could get away, the Riolu was upon it, scoring a massive hit against the Chimecho. Now behind the faltering Chimecho, Zero spun around, his other claw too coated with ghost type energy, and slashed at its back.

The two consecutive super-effective hits did their work as the Chimecho soon fell out of the air, landing with a weak chime. However, Zero didn't have time to pat himself on the back as a musical cry resounded to the air.

Looking up just in time, Zero saw the Chatot swinging its wings, hurling several blades of winds towards him, forcing the Riolu to jump back. The normal-flying type pressed its attack, diving straight towards the ground before evening out and racing towards Zero with an Aerial Ace.

Zero stared down the attack, appearing as if he was about to meet the attack with one of his own. Just as they were about to collide, Zero suddenly jumped into the air, surprising the musical note Pokémon. It was then further surprised when Furno suddenly burst out of the ground and nailed it with a Thunder Punch.

The normal-flying type was sent high into the air, tumbling head over heels, unable to righten itself. Just as it managed to even out, Zero slammed into its back with two Force Palms. The unexpected explosion of fighting type energy sent the Chatot crashing to the ground with a pained squawk. It didn't get back up.

Zero landed next to Furno and they both turned to the still motionless Wigglytuff. The balloon Pokémon seemed to grin almost challenging, daring the duo to attack it. Not even needing to look at each other, Team Dawn Breaker charged.

Moving as one, Zero and Furno struck, throwing attack after attack at the normal-fairy type. The played off each other's moves, when one attack ended, the other was quick to follow. When the Wigglytuff made to attack one of them with its surprisingly strong Pound attacks, the other would come in and deflect the hit, giving the other an opportunity to strike. They were in sync.

But the Wigglytuff endured.

"YOOM-TAH!" the Wigglytuff screamed, sending both resistance members flying across the room.

Impacting against the back wall for a third time, Zero and Furno were quick to get up. They were both heavily bruised and exhausted, but neither of them was willing to give in. It was that determination that kept them standing, even as their energy faded, and glare at the Wigglytuff.

Said Pokémon was hardly even breathing hard, the bruise and burns on its body hardly doing anything to diminish the grin on its face. It regarded the duo, assessing them with unnaturally intelligent eyes. Time passed slowly as neither side moved, the tension building with each passing second. Suddenly, the tension in the Wigglytuff's body disappeared, its grin becoming oddly happy. Before the duo could comprehend this change, the Wigglytuff shouted.

All at once, the dungeon Pokémon that Zero and Furno thought were unconscious, sprang to their feet as if revitalized. Zero and Furno tensed, preparing to have to fight all them at once, but to their shock, they all charged towards the opposite wall and climbed/dug/flew towards the pitfall's opening. The Wigglytuff, before it left, turned back to look down at Zero and Furno. It smiled brightly at the duo before disappearing.

Zero and Furno could only stare blankly at the hole. "What just happened?" Zero asked, gobsmacked.

"I think we won?" Furno said tentatively.

"But they could have won," Zero said, still confused. "The others were clearly pretending to be unconscious, they could have easily beaten us."

"Yeah, but they left," Furno pointed out. "Also, what kind of dungeon Pokémon plays dead like that?"

"And which ones just leave instead of attacking sentient Pokémon? This whole encounter was weird," Zero sighed.

"Zero! Furno!" The duo looked up to see Stride and Orion staring down at them.

"We saw a group of dungeon Pokémon fleeing from here. Are you two okay?" Orion called down.

"Stride! Orion!" Furno called back, relief filtering into his voice. "We're fine. Just a little beat up.

"What the hell were you two thinking?!" Stride demanded, jumping into the cavern. He stalked forward until he was towering over the duo. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently. "Well?!"

"Uh…" Furno stuttered, unsure of what to say. "You see…"

"It was my fault," Zero interrupted, causing Furno to gape.

Stride rounded on the Riolu. "You?"

"Yeah," Zero said. "I got anxious just sitting there under the camouflage orb so I went out to explore. Furno went after me. It's my fault we ended up here."

Stride opened his mouth to say something, but Furno cut him off. "No! He's lying!"

"Furno!" Zero hissed.

"No, Zero!" Furno shook his head. He took a deep breath and turned to Stride. "We got into an argument and I stormed off. Zero chased after me to make sure I didn't get into trouble. If you want to blame someone, then blame me."

Stride looked over both of his charges, his expression unreadable. "As noble as your loyalty to each other is, wandering off in the middle of a dungeon was incredibly foolish," he chided. "What's more, you deemed fit to deal with the threat alone. Why didn't you two use the rollcall orb I gave you?"

"Crap!" Zero shouted in realization. "The pack!"

He ran over to the rock mound and began to unbury his team's pack. As he did so, Furno explained, "The Pokémon we were fighting separated us from our pack and buried it with a Rock Tomb."

"Dungeon Pokémon did that?" Orion asked, descending into the cavern. "That's highly unusual. Even amongst dungeon psychic type, it is unheard of for a dungeon Pokémon to have the intelligence to know to separate a team from their items."

"Even more unusual for a bunch of dungeon Pokémon to plan an ambush?" Furno asked, now glaring at both the Lucario and Greninja.

"What?" Orion questioned confusedly. Stride too looked confused.

"Why didn't you warn us about going through an ambush in this place?!" Furno demanded. "We nearly got killed because of that ambush. If they hadn't run off when they did, we would have been done for!"

"Wait. They ran off?" Orion asked, appearing even more confused than before. "Since when do dungeon Pokémon do that, especially when they have the numbers advantage."

"Furthermore, neither of us-" Stride gestured to himself and Orion, "-have ever experienced an ambush in this place. I personally didn't even know this cavern existed."

"Then how did we find this place?" Zero asked, walking over, their pack in tow. "If the Temple of Memoria is based off of memories, then how did we find this place if no one here has actually experienced this?"

"And who were those Pokémon?" Furno asked. "None of them looked like they were from this place, so where did they come from?"

"Hmm," Stride hummed in thought. "There have been stories of this place being the testing ground for a certain guild, but I can't remember the guild's name. As for _how_ this place came to be, well, there is a reason why these places are called mystery dungeons."

"But enough about that," Orion said cheerfully, clapping his paws together. "Judging by how relaxed you two are, I take it you two worked your problems out?"

Zero and Furno glanced at one another, smiling slightly. "Yep," Furno responded. "We're back to the way we were."

"Better than before," Zero added, earning a nod of ascent from Furno.

"Good to hear!" Orion said, placing paws on the young team's shoulders and began to steer the duo towards the opening. "Now, let's get out of this place. Me and Stride found the stairs in the middle of a spring at the end of the path. You can heal up there."


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27**

Painful Memories

 **Temple of Memoria F18**

Four days.

That's how long the quartet had been in the Temple of Memoria.

Through dungeon after dungeon, the group trekked, revisiting places of their memories. Their progression was random at best. The floors they encountered varied in difficulty, reflecting the various memories the dungeon mimicked. They would occasionally get lucky and get an easy floor that the resistance members could get through with ease, but a lot of the floors difficult and required more care.

The group hadn't encountered a floor that was as dangerous as Razed Ridge, though there were a few close calls, like when the group had entered a floor that mimicked Frigid Cavern and Zero had been teleported into a situation reminiscent of the one he had been in at the real Frigid Cavern. Thankfully, Stride had a rollcall orb and was able to retrieve Zero before anything bad could happen.

Currently, the group was resting around a fire in a dungeon called Geode Cave, an intermediate level cave type dungeon that was filled with glittering gemstones. The light of the camouflage orb surrounded them, though it looked significantly smaller, indicating that the energy was almost completely depleted. According to Stride, they had four hours left before their shied fell.

Stride and Orion were conversing a little ways away from the fire, leaving Zero and Furno to talk amongst themselves. "So, the voice told you that you had some kind of task to do?" Furno asked, eyes wide in surprise.

"Mhmm," Zero hummed, blankly staring at the fire. "That's the gist of it."

"And that voice called you Atlas?" Furno persisted. "Like…it called you that like it was your name?"

"Yes," Zero said, a little irritably. "I've said the same thing for the past three days."

"Sorry," Furno said sheepishly, "but it's just so unreal."

"I know." Zero sighed tiredly. They had hardly been getting any sleep with the constant push to get to the end of the dungeon and to conserve the camouflage orb. In the four days that they had been travelling, Zero had only gotten six hours of sleep total.

"Soooo…" Furno began. "Do you…do you want me to call you Atlas from now on?"

Zero blinked owlishly. "Huh?"

"It _is_ your name, right?" Furno asked. "Do you want me to call you that?"

That actually caught Zero off guard. He was conflicted. While Atlas was, apparently, his name, he had grown accustomed to being called Zero. _Do I want to go by Atlas?_ Zero asked himself. _It was who I was, but, at the same time, I'm different then I was before._

"I think…I want to go by Zero," the Riolu said aloud. "Atlas was who I was as a human and I'm clearly not one of those anymore."

Furno chuckled at the former human's joke. "Yeah. It'd be weird to just start calling you Atlas. I've gotten used to Zero."

"Especially since you made up with the name," Zero smirked, remembering how Furno came up with his name. "Seriously, I still can't believe you couldn't come up with something better than _Zero_."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Furno defended, chuckling slightly.

"Sure it was," Zero scoffed, rolling his eyes good-naturedly.

"Alright you two, time to turn in," Stride said as he walked over to the duo. "The camouflage orb only has about three hours left so we might as well make the best of it."

"I'll stay up and take watch," Orion said. "Drilbur and Excadrill reside in this dungeon and they can dig underneath us and my aura sense can detect them. I'll wake you up when the orb fails."

Stride merely nodded and sat cross-legged by the fire, his head bowed and eyes closed. Zero sighed in relief and immediately laid down. In less than five minutes, he was out like a light, Stride shortly following.

Orion sat down and closed his eyes, his aura sensors slowly lifting into the air. Several minutes of silence passed before Orion spoke. "What are you still doing up, Furno?"

The fire type, who had been staring blankly at the dimming fire, jumped. "Huh?"

"Stride was right when he said we only have a limited time before we have to set out again," Orion said, still not opening his eyes. "You better get some sleep while you still can."

"I know, I just…" Furno trailed off. "I can't…"

"Nightmares?" Furno gaped at the Lucario's response.

"H-How did—"

"It doesn't take a genius to figure it out," Orion said. "You haven't been sleeping much for the past three days, and when you do, you always wake up pale."

Furno lowered his head. His fingers curled into tight fists. His eyes once more staring at the fire.

"I take it from your silence, I'm right," Orion commented.

"…yeah."

"If I may venture a guess, your nightmares…they're about Zero, aren't they?"

Furno swallowed thickly. "I saw him die," he said after a while. "Right before my eyes. I can't…I can't un- _see_ that."

"I can understand that, but you have to remember that he is alive now. That reviver seed brought him back," Orion said.

"I know!" Furno exclaimed before recoiling. Glancing at Zero and Stride, he was relieved when he saw they were still asleep. "I know that," he repeated, his voice much quieter now. "I _know_ that he's still alive, but I saw him _die_! I can't just forget that!"

Orion released a breath. He opened his eyes and turned to fully look at the fire type. "I understand where you're coming from, I really do, but the best thing you can do is move on."

"Move on?" Anger began to build in the fire type. "How can you—"

"I know it sounds cold, but it is really the best thing you can do," Orion interrupted. "In this world, death is an unfortunate commonality. I have seen many of my fellow resistance members fall, but I can't afford to let each death cripple me. I have to move on and survive for their sakes. That's why I say you have to move on."

Furno allowed his mouth to fall close, his anger fading. "I get that, but still…"

Orion looked sadly at the chimp Pokémon. "You're young. You shouldn't have to deal with this kind of thing so early in life, but, unfortunately, that's the world we live in. Eventually, you'll come to terms with it."

"How?" Furno asked.

"Time," Orion replied. "Time heals all wounds."

"I don't exactly have time if I want to get some rest," Furno grunted bitterly.

Orion looked at Furno pensively. He then reached over for his and Stride's bag and pulled out a chesto berry. "Here," he said. "It won't help you sleep, but it will keep you from being exhausted when we move on."

Furno took the acorn-like fruit into his hand and looked it over. After hesitating for a second, he took a bite, immediately feeling a shot of energy shoot through him, his exhaustion wane to a slight fatigue.

"It's not a permanent solution, but it should hold you over for the time being," Orion said, going back to surveying the area with his aura sense."

"Thank you," Furno said, finishing the berry.

-Resistance-

 **Temple of Memoria F22**

As promised, as soon as the camouflage orb lost power, the group set off again. Without the camouflage orb, Stride decided to take a stealthier approach, deeming it better to avoid confrontation and energy loss as much as possible without a viable means of protecting themselves while they slept. This caused their pace to be much slower than before, but they still moved at a reasonable pace, clearing several floors with minimal conflict. They got through four more floors before things took a turn.

The now familiar explosion of color flashed, the landscape of the new floor forming before the group. The first thing they noticed was that they were in the middle of a large town. The second thing they noticed was that the town was in ruins.

All along the streets, buildings had been reduced to little more than blackened beams of charred wood and ash. Flecks of shattered glass was sprinkled throughout some of the ash piles, glittering in the sunlight.

The area wasn't a dungeon floor, so the group just followed the path. They moved deeper into the town, they saw more and more destruction. There were a few houses that were still standing, but they could see the walls were heavily burnt and damaged, some of them with collapsed walls and roofs. The quartet stopped in front of one particular house that, unlike the other buildings, appeared to not have any other than superficial damage. Upon closer inspection, they saw a black band with a familiar symbol on it.

"Is that…a soldier's badge?" Furno asked, slightly fearful.

"It would appear so," Orion said, moving closer to examine the item. Like everything else, it was slightly burnt, but the infamous symbol and footprint runes was impossible to mistake.

"What was this place?" Furno wondered, unable to tear his eyes away from the band.

"One of the places that felt the emperor's wrath," Stride responded. He too stepped up to the house. He touched the wall, his eyes melancholic.

"Have you been here before?" Furno asked the Greninja.

Stride paused, the fire type's question pulling him out of his thoughts. "Yes," he replied after some time had passed.

The Lucario looked up at that. "Wait, is this place…" Orion trailed off when Stride sent him a sharp look. "Never mind."

"We best keep moving," Stride said, his voice clipped. "The longer we stay in this dungeon, the more likely we are to become dungeon Pokémon."

"Wait, _become_ dungeon Pokémon?!" Furno questioned. "What do you mean by that?"

"There is a reason why there is such an urgency for rescue missions, and it's not just because of the residing Pokémon," Stride began. "As you know, the, for lack of a better word, _magic_ of a mystery dungeon make the Pokémon with in far more aggressive than even wild Pokémon. This phenomenon, like with dungeon Pokémon, affects Pokémon, both sentient and wild, that enter the dungeon, causing them to become dungeon Pokémon.

"For wild Pokémon, the process is relatively quick, taking only a couple of days or so, but sentient take much longer, especially when they are more powerful. When the process of becoming a dungeon Pokémon is complete, even the most advanced therapy and psychics are incapable of returning the Pokémon to their previous states. Their memories, personalities, everything that made them who they were is gone," Stride continued grimly. "They become much like how Dusty is now, intelligent, but incapable of feeling and understanding most emotions."

"That's horrible," Furno said, inwardly promising never to overlook a rescue mission again.

"Let's get going," Stride restated. "Hopefully we can reach a midway point before we lose ourselves."

Furno readily agreed and followed the two older Pokémon. They only made it a few feet before Furno noticed they were down a member. "Zero?" he called, looking around and finding the fighting type was still outside the house. "Zero?"

At Furno's second call, both Stride and Orion turned and saw the Riolu. He wasn't responding, even when Furno walked up to him and touched his shoulder. The emanation Pokémon hadn't moved from his original spot, his eyes locked onto the building, yet unfocused.

"Zero?" Furno asked again, shaking his friend's arm. He received no response.

By that point, the trio was getting worried over the young fighting type's lack of response. Slowly, Stride walked forward and crouched down in front of Zero, trying to get the younger Pokémon to look at him. Zero just looked through him.

"Zero," Stride spoke, his voice soft but carrying a demanding tone.

The former human reacted by furrowing his brow, as if he were in thought. Other than that, he gave no inclination that he had heard the ninja Pokémon.

Slight annoyed, Stride placed both of his hands on the canine's shoulders and shook him slightly. "Zero!"

The Riolu blinked, his eyes focusing on Stride. Said Greninja almost sighed in relief when he finally garnered a reaction. He was about to scold his charge when the Riolu spoke up. "I know this place."

Everything stopped at this declaration. "What?" Stride questioned.

"I…I know this place," Zero repeated, moving his head to look past the Greninja at the house. "I've been here before."

"But we've never been on a mission here," Furno said, a confused look on his face.

"I know, but…" Zero looked around, a crease forming on his brow. "I think I've been here _before_ we met."

Furno gasped, Orion's eyes widened in surprise, and Stride frowned. "But I thought you didn't have any memories from before you met Furno," Orion said.

"I don't, or I didn't, I…" Zero winced slightly, placing a paw on his temple.

"Zero?" Furno asked, worried over seeing the look of pain cross his friend's face.

The Riolu shook his head, not reacting to Furno. "I've been here before, I know it!"

"Zero, you have to calm down," Stride said, trying to calm the fighting type down, but Zero was not hearing it.

"No, I know it! This place holds the secrets of my memories!" As he said this, Zero grabbed his head again. What felt like nails were dragging across his brain, sending jolts of pain through his head. Unable to endure it any longer, he fell to his knees.

"Zero!" Furno shouted in alarm, rushing to his friend's side, Orion not far behind.

Zero opened his mouth to respond, but a fresh wave of pain shot through his head, causing him to cry out. Images began to flash through his mind. Beautiful buildings lining familiar streets, humanoid shadows walking around, conversing and laughing with one another, a general happy atmosphere all around. Then, everything was engulfed by fire.

The laughs devolved into screams of terror and pain. Buildings were ablaze, the shadowy figures trying desperately to escape or rescue those trapped in the flames. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Pokémon came, attacking the shadow figures. Amongst the burning wreckage, a bloodstained soldier band sat.

On the outside, Furno, Stride, and Orion were all panicking. Seconds before, Zero had fully collapsed to the ground and started convulsing. His eyes were flickering wildly behind closed lids.

"Crap!" Orion bit out, kneeling next to the convulsing Riolu.

"What's happening to him?!" Furno yelled, terrified at the state of his friend.

"I don't know!" Orion snapped, cursing when he saw the Riolu's nose start bleeding. "It's some kind of seizure." He scooped the small canine into his arms and turned to Stride. "We _need_ to get him out of here. Now!"

"Right," Stride agreed. Just as the trio got to their feet and turned to leave when they were met with opposition.

Standing several yards away from the group was a very large Arcanine with golden fur instead of orange. The legendary Pokémon growled threateningly at the trio, taking slow, menacing steps towards them. Fire licking at the edges of its mouth.

"Dammit," Stride cursed, summoning a blade of dark energy. "Can't we get a break?!"

Still trapped within his memories, Zero somehow heard the Arcanine's growl. Slowly, he opened his eyes and saw the golden canine stalking towards them. For some reason, the sight of the Arcanine caused a spark of familiarity to occur within the Riolu. Sudden images of a similarly colored Growlithe and, later, an Arcanine joined the flashes filtering through the former human's head. "Sunny…" he whimpered.

The Arcanine suddenly roared and lunged at the trio, Stride jumping to meet it. "No…" Zero groaned, trying, and failing, to call out to the Greninja, but his voice was too weak. Soon, the pain became too much him and black spots began to creep into his vision. "Don't…hurt him…" As these words left his mouth, Zero consciousness faded, taking the visions with it.

-Resistance-

 **Temple of Memoria Mid-Point**

With a panicked gasp, Zero snapped awake. His breathing was shallow, panic gripping him like a vice. _Where am I?! What's going on?!_ A tap on his shoulder almost sent the Riolu into cardiac arrest.

"Zero?" the worried voice of Furno reached the Riolu's ears. He paused, his panic beginning to fade, allowing him to focus on his surroundings. He was sitting in some kind of chamber entirely made up of gray stone. Sitting in front of him was a concerned Furno, Stride and Orion standing a few feet away.

"Furno?" The Chimchar looked visibly relieved to see Zero responding.

"Thank Arceus!" Furno exclaimed. "After you passed out, we had to carry you through two floors before we got here."

"Oh. What happened?" Zero asked.

"We were hoping you could tell us," Stride said, walking over to the two younger Pokémon. "What happened back there."

"Stride," Orion said reproachfully. "He just woke up…"

"It's fine," Zero said, smiling gratefully at the Lucario. He took a deep breath, allowing his jumbled thoughts. "That place… Something about it was familiar to me. I started to see images of that place, before it was like that."

"So, you were there before?" Furno questioned.

Zero shook his head. "I'm not sure. Everything was all blurred. I think I was there, but…" he trailed off, not sure how to respond. "There were also these figures, the looked like shadows, but humanoid. Other than that…"

Zero frowned, trying to make sense of the various images that flashed through his head. "Don't hurt yourself," Orion commented. His tone was joking, but there was a layer of actual worry underneath it.

After several seconds, Zero sighed in disappointment. "Nothing. I can't remember anything else!"

Zero punched the floor, growling slightly in frustration. The images were still fresh in his mind, but he could make no sense of them. He was so close to uncovering his memories, but he still hadn't made any progress. He lifted his paw to punch the ground again, but a gentle hand grabbed his wrist. He turned and was met with Furno's concerned and understanding eyes.

"It's okay, Zero." It was only three words, but it felt like a sermon. Immediately, Zero's frustration left him, the knowledge that his friend understood and supported him causing relief.

"Back to the topic at hand," Stride interrupted. "You collapsed and started convulsing. What caused that?"

Zero allowed his arm to fall, his composure returning. "The images, there were so many. It hurt just to see them all. I wasn't aware of what was going outside of my mind until…"

"That Arcanine," Orion finished. When everyone looked at him, the Lucario shrugged. "You mumbled something when the Arcanine attacked."

"Sunny," Zero said suddenly. "His name was Sunny."

"Sunny?" Furno repeated. "Did you know him?"

"I…think so?" Zero said, unsure. "Everything's too scrambled to make sense of anything."

"Well, let's just hope nothing like this happens again," Stride sighed. "We'll spend a few hours here to rest before we move on."

"Where exactly is 'here'?" Zero questioned.

"A midway point in the dungeon," Stride answered. "A point in particularly long dungeon's where dungeon Pokémon cannot enter. There's a Kangaskhan rock here too, but it's empty."

"Kangaskhan rock?"

"Special statues that the dungeon generates in the midway points," Orion explained. "They're really useful because explorers that travel through can leave items in it for others to take when they pass through. They even have a kind of preservation field around them so food items can be left too."

"Wow," Zero said in amazement. "I guess it's not surprising that it's empty. We're the only ones to have gone through this dungeon."

"Indeed," Stride commented, looking away distractedly.

Orion frowned at the Greninja before speaking to Team Dawn Breaker. "You two should rest up. We'll be heading out in a few hours."

Zero and Furno both nodded in consent and began conversing with each other. With the duo distracted, Orion turned to Stride and frowned. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Confused, Stride nodded and followed the Lucario off to the corner of the room. "What's wrong?"

"You want to explain to me how Zero knows about that town?" Orion demanded, glaring.

Stride's eyes widened. "What?"

"Don't play dumb," Orion spat softly, mindful of Zero and Furno. "I saw your expression when he said he knew that place. So, spill!"

"He must have seen a picture somewhere," Stride dismissed, turning away from the fighting-steel type.

"He had visions of the town before it burned down," Orion growled angrily. "There _are_ no pictures of what it was like before that happened!" He stepped closer so that his nose was inches away from Stride's. "Why don't you cut the Tauros-shit and tell me what the hell is going on with Zero."

Stride remained silent for a while. "I don't know what you're talking about," he finally said, turning away from the Lucario.

Orion growled, but didn't persist. "Fine, don't tell me," he said, turning and stalking away. "I'll figure it out myself!"

Stride watched the Lucario go with a blank expression. He sighed and looked at his hands, wondering how he was going to proceed with Zero from there.

-Resistance-

 **Temple of Memoria Spire F1**

The second the group of four existed the safe zone and reached the next floor, they knew they were in trouble for, before them, laid a very familiar landscape.

"Dammit!" Orion cursed when he saw the floor layout.

"I was afraid of this," Stride said, his own displeasure filtering his voice.

"I can't believe it," Furno muttered. "We're…"

"Back at the Latios Division," Zero finished.

They were back home.


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28**

Facing the Team

"This can't be happening!" Furno cried in horror. "We can't be here! We just ca—"

Stride slapped a hand over the Chimchar's mouth. "Shhh!" he whispered harshly, glaring at Furno. "We can't afford to draw unnecessary attention to ourselves!"

No sooner had Stride said this, the sound of encroaching footsteps reached their ears. Cursing to himself, Stride grabbed Furno and Zero and pulled them into a nearby alcove, Orion following quickly behind. A second passed before a large Bouffalant cantered past. The bash Pokémon paused, sniffing harshly. It shifted its head around, it didn't see them, but it was clearly searching for them.

Zero tensed, beginning to channel energy into his paw, preparing a Force Palm, however, a heavy paw on his shoulder stopped him from charging. Glancing up, Zero saw Orion shake his head negatively. Hesitantly, Zero let go of the energy he was building up and continued to watch the Bouffalant.

For several tense seconds, the bovine Pokémon continued to sniff the area before giving a loud snort. With a shake of its head, the normal type stomped off, leaving the quartet alone. Several more seconds passed before Stride poked his head out of the alcove and looked around the corner. "Clear."

"Thank Arceus," Furno sighed in relief. His face then fell as he once more realized the gravity of their situation. "What are we going to do, Stride? We can't just fight through and search the entire division."

"Which is why we won't be doing that," Stride stated simply.

"So, we had the same idea," Orion commented.

"Am I missing something here?" Furno asked, a hint of annoyance coloring his voice.

"You want to sneak past everyone," Zero guessed, earning a nod from the Greninja.

"Indeed. As we have seen, the dungeon Pokémon on each floor reflect the power of the dungeon it is reflecting. Seeing as there is a myriad of Pokémon here with varying levels of strength and ability, it would be foolish to think that we could fight them," Stride explained. "As such, our only option is to use stealth."

"You really think that we can just sneak past the entire division?" Zero asked skeptically.

"We'll have to because there's no way I'm fighting through the entire Latios Division," Orion said.

"That's all well and good, but how are we supposed to find the stairs?" Furno asked.

Stride closed his eyes, his expression unreadable. "We'll have to search the entire division."

"WHAT?!" Furno shouted before immediately covering his mouth. When no dungeon Pokémon appeared, Furno removed his hands and said in a much quieter voice. "Are you crazy! This place is huge! It took us an entire day just to get through every floor, and that's not including the hundreds of rooms here!"

"I am aware," Stride said, his voice tight, "but there is no other way."

"If only we had a pure seed," Orion sighed forlornly. "One of us could just teleport to the stairs and use a rollcall orb to teleport the rest of us."

"Well we don't have one of those, do we?" Stride snapped waspishly, glaring at the Lucario. "We have to make due with what we have. And what we _have_ to do is to find the stairs and if we have to go through the entire division to find them, then so be it."

"Actually, we might not have to," Zero interjected.

Stride paused, his gaze sliding to the former human. "What?"

"I mean, I have a theory about the floors of the non-dungeon floor," Zero said, losing a bit of his confidence.

Stride fully turned to face Zero, towering over the fighting type. Whether on purpose or not, Zero was intimidated. "What?"

"Um, well something I've noticed from the floors that weren't dungeon based was that the stairs were in someplace important," Zero explained.

"What do you mean by that?" Stride asked, though it sounded more like a demand.

Zero gulped before speaking in a rushed manner. "W-Well, um, when we were in Briarwood Village, the stairs were in Furno's old house." Zero cast an apologetic glance towards his friend before continuing. "Then the other time at Murky Bayou…"

"Don't remind me of that place," Furno said, looking a little green. "It smelled like a Garbodor."

"…the stairs were at that shack," Zero continued.

"Old man Ivan's place," Orion said, nodding his head in understanding. "He was annoying to fight, damn Swalot just tanked everything we hit him with. What about it?"

"That shack, Ivan's place, was somewhere that _you_ specifically knew about and have been to," Zero explained. "And it's the same thing with all of the other non-dungeon floors we've gone through. They've all been places we've been to."

"So, what you're thinking is that each place that the stairs placement for these 'non-dungeon' floors is based off of the specific areas we have been to outside of the dungeon?" Stride surmised.

Zero blinked. "Yes?"

"Hmm," Stride hummed in thought. "That would make sense. After all, these floors are based from our own memories."

Stride pondered a while longer before nodding to himself. He looked back towards Zero. "You could be on to something, but how would that explain Luminous Spring? None of us experienced the trap or the Pokémon you encountered."

Zero faltered at that. "…I don't know," he admitted. "Maybe it was the exception?"

Stride didn't look convinced, but Orion jumped to the Riolu's defense. "It's the best shot we've got, Stride, and it sure beats going through this place from top to bottom."

Stride nodded, albeit reluctantly, at that. "I suppose that's true, but at the same time, I myself have been almost everywhere in this division, the amount of locations the stairs may be isn't reduced by that much."

"But Zero said that the places had to be important to us," Furno interjected, frowning slightly. "Wouldn't that mean that the place would have to be somewhere we know well?"

"Or possesses sentimental value," Orion added. "If that is the case, then that certainly does cut down on the amount of locations."

Stride closed his eyes, humming in thought. "If that's true, then the places that meet the criteria would most likely be our teams' quarters."

"So, we need to get to our rooms," Furno said. "Which one should we go to first? Team Surge's?"

"No!" Stride shouted, causing Furno to jump in fright. "You. Are. _Not_. Going to Team Surge's quarters."

"But—"

"No!" Stride snapped. "You seem to be forgetting that everything in this dungeon are a reflection of our memories. If you were to go to those rooms, there is a chance that you would be face with Team Surge themselves."

Furno swallowed thickly. "Right. I forgot about that."

"Then what do we do?" Zero asked. "There's not really anyplace we can hide."

Stride closed his eyes in thought before grimacing. "You two…will have to go to your own rooms and search for the stairs there."

"WHAT?!" Zero, Furno, and Orion shouted in unison.

"Are you insane?!" Orion shouted at the Greninja. "It's to risky for them to go off by themselves!"

"I am aware, but, like Zero said, there's no where for them to hide that won't be discovered," Stride argued.

"Then why don't we all go to Team Dawn Breaker's rooms?" Orion demanded.

"Time is of the essence, Orion," Stride hissed. "We need to leave this place as soon as possible and arguing here and now isn't helping anything!"

Orion growled, still not liking the idea of leaving both Zero and Furno alone. Stride saw the Lucario's conflicted look and pressed on. "They still have a rollcall orb so they can teleport us to them if they need help or if they find the stairs and we can use ours if we find them. Not to mention, the Pokémon they would encounter would be closer to their level."

Orion opened and closed his mouth, trying to think of an argument, but Stride was right. The longer they stayed on their current floor, the higher the chances of stronger Pokémon finding them. Orion clenched his fists and glared at the Greninja. "You're taking a lot of risks with this, Stride. I hope you know this."

Stride didn't respond, instead turning to Zero and Furno. "You two are to go to your rooms and _only_ your rooms," he said. "If the stairs aren't there, you are to stay out of sight and wait for us to teleport you to us. If you find the stairs, teleport us immediately. Understood?"

Both younger Pokémon gulped and nodded.

-Resistance-

The group stayed together as far as the third floor of the dormitories, where Team Dawn Breaker's quarters were, before the two elder Pokémon departed. Orion looked conflicted about leaving the duo alone, but left upon Stride's insistence, leaving the young team to move through the hallway.

Unlike with the stairs, the walls were made of a smoothed stone, leaving no alcoves that the two members of Team Dawn Breaker to hide within. Fortunately, however, whoever's memory they were in, didn't seem to recall any Pokémon walking through the hallway. As such, there was no real need for sneaking, though both Pokémon moved as quietly as possible regardless. Their rooms were close to the end of the hall, meaning that, at the pace they were going, they would reach their destination in five minutes or so.

Halfway into their trek, Furno spoke up. "Hey, Zero?"

"Hm?"

"Do you…do you think that this is the right thing to do?"

Zero frowned at his friend. "What do you mean?"

"The whole splitting up thing," Furno responded. "Do you think it was the right call?"

"I…I mean…Stride came up with the plan…" Zero began.

"But that's just it! Lately, haven't you noticed that he's been…different lately?"

"I…" Zero trailed off, not knowing what to say. "He's…under a lot of stress. We were never supposed to be on this expedition in the first place, so he has to be extra concerned over our own wellbeing."

"I know, but even so it feels like he's being reckless," Furno argued. "I mean, he sent us off on our own!"

"Yeah, but the younger and newer teams reside on the lower floors, so the dungeon Pokémon here would be closer to our level than not," Zero pointed out. "However, I do get what you're saying. Since we ran into him and Orion, Stride's aura's been different."

"How so?" Furno asked.

"Well, usually, when I feel his aura, he's always calm with the occasional fluctuation of emotion, but since we entered this temple, and a little bit before, he's been anxious, like he's either expecting something or waiting for something," Zero explained. "I think the premise of finding something about the Silver Soul is effecting him and not for the better."

"I get that the Silver Soul is important to him, but do you think he's willing to risk…us for it?" Furno asked, hesitant as if not wanting to hear the answer.

Zero opened his mouth to respond but closed it a second later. He really didn't know what to think. Had Furno asked him that question a month prior, Zero would have immediately denied it, but now, after everything that has occurred since coming to the Temple of Memoria, he wasn't sure.

Stride seemed determined to get to the end of the dungeon and find whatever secrets lied there, so much so that he often looked past injuries they had sustained while traveling and pushed them to the point of exhaustion. As of late, it was Orion that showed the most concern out of the duo and, seeing as the Lucario taught him a move that shortened his life, Zero never expected that. It was as if their roles had switched, Orion was the caring one and Stride was the one that took all the risks that could potentially harm the group.

Zero glanced at Furno, hoping that his conflicted thoughts were not obvious in his eyes. He wanted to reassure his friend, to tell him that Stride would never do something like that, but he just wasn't sure he could give the reassurance that his friend needed. Thankfully, he was spared answering as they came upon their room. Furno noticed this as well and trepidation became clear in his expression, and Zero didn't blame him for that.

Seeing their team name emblazoned on the plaque on their door had never brought such fear and uncertainty in Zero, but the prospect of facing their team, or rather an imitation of their team, was unappealing to him. He took a deep breath, trying to settle his nerves, but it didn't help. He couldn't prepare for something like that.

"I guess we go in now," Furno said, looking just as conflicted as Zero felt.

"Yeah…"

"It will be quick. Just a quick peek in all of the rooms, then we can leave," Furno said. He sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than Zero.

"Right." Zero was still uncertain, but it was their only way to precede. He pulled out the rollcall orb and handed it to Furno. "Be ready to use it the moment you see the stairs."

"Got it!" Furno said.

Zero nodded in response and turned back towards the door. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he reached for the door only for something to slam into his stomach.

Zero choked on air as he was forced back, clutching his stomach. Glancing up he saw a shadowy fist sticking out from the door. Soon, a familiar zippered face phased through the door, joining the arm. It was Belladonna.

"Crap," Zero cursed, jumping back as the Banette lunged forward with a Shadow Claw. Instinctively, Zero lashed out with his own Shadow Claw, meeting the attack head on and stopping the Banette in its tracks.

Zero struggled fervently against the ghost type, but he was slowly being overwhelmed. He was saved when Furno shot a blast of fire at the ghost type, causing it to screech in pain and retreat.

"You okay?" Furno asked, stepping next to Zero.

"I'm fine," Zero said, dismissing the ghostly energy from his paw. He looked towards the marionette Pokémon and had to withhold a wince when he saw an angry burn on the side of its face. _It's not Bella._

As the ghost type was getting back to its feet, a low whirring sound emanated from behind the door. Not a second later, Dusty burst through the door using Rollout and raced towards the duo. Both Zero and Furno were able leap out of the way, but the Sandshrew swerved, coming back around and nailing Zero in the back as he landed on his feet.

"GAH!" Zero cried out, falling to the ground in front of the Banette.

The Banette, now recovered, thrusted its arm downwards with a Shadow Claw, attempting to impale the fighting type. Zero managed to roll away in time, the ghost type's claw piercing through the stone with ease. From the corner of his eye he saw the dungeon Sandshrew rushing towards them with another Rollout.

Dodging the attack, Zero called out to Furno. "Check to see if the stairs are there! I'll handle these two!" Furno hesitated before nodding and dashing through the hole the Sandshrew had made in the door. As he did this, Zero went on the offensive.

Seeing the ground type coming around for another attack, sidestepped and sent a Low Sweep towards its side as it passed. Taken by surprise, the rolling mouse Pokémon wobbled and unfurled, its left-over momentum causing it to fly towards the Banette. The marionette Pokémon, predictably, phased through the airborne Pokémon and lunged at Zero, but was met by the Riolu's Shadow Claw.

With both Pokémon momentarily stunned, Zero raced through the hole and entered the room. The moment he did, he had to dive to the ground as a barrage of glowing spikes raced over head, tearing through the wooden door like it was paper. Looking up, Zero saw Furno dancing around the attacks of both a large Quilladin and a shiny Absol. The Chimchar no longer had the rollcall orb in his hands.

Seeing his partner in distress, Zero raced forward with Quick Attack and slammed into the grass-fighting type before delivering a swift Force Palm to the disaster Pokémon. "You okay, Furno?" he asked, stepping back to stand next to the fire type.

"Yeah, I'm good," Furno said. "They blindsided me when I entered and knocked the orb from my hands. I didn't see where it landed."

"Did you see the stairs?" Zero asked.

"Mhm," Furno hummed in affirmation. "It was in your room. I saw them when I was dodging those two."

"Then we really need that orb."

"Easier said than done," Furno said, point to where the Quilladin and Absol were getting back to their feet. At the door, the duo saw the Sandshrew crawl through the door and the Banette pass through it. They were surrounded.

"I don't suppose we have any more petrify orbs, do we?" Zero asked.

"No, we used the last one when we were carrying out to the mid-point," Furno answered grimly. "We still have a reviver seed though."

"Yeah, well I'm not really keen on dying again, so that leaves one option," Zero said.

"Fight through them and find the orb?" Furno asked, a small grin making its way onto his face.

Zero smirked. "You read my mind." As he said this, he summoned a pillar of raging blue winds around himself. With a shout, he swung his arm, unleashing a horizontal blade of wind at the four replicas of their teammates.

With the Vacuum Wave rushing towards them, the Absol leapt out of the way while the Quilladin and Sandshrew blocked with Protect and Defense Curl respectively. The Banette, being immune to fighting type damage, simply rushed through the attack. It claws were outstretched to rend the fur off of Zero's face but was stopped by a gout of flame rushing directly into its path, causing it to back off.

As the Banette moved away, the Quilladin, in an impressive show of strength, leapt over the flamethrower bringing its right arm down in a downwards swing. A white light engulfed its arm as it cut through the air, heading straight towards Zero. On impulse, Zero through his hands in the air, catching the Brick Break before it could crack his skull open. The force of the attack forced Zero to his knees, the ground around him cracking.

"Furno," Zero groaned under the strength of the spiky armor Pokémon. "Hit it!"

Furno stepped forward, preparing to unleash a flamethrower, but he hesitated. His eyes were full of indecision. Seeing this, Zero shouted, "Furno! It's not really them! Hit it!"

Steeling his nerves, Furno released a large gout of flames directly at the Quilladin's back. The grass-fighting type screeched in pain and lost concentration over its attack. Zero took that opportunity to let go with one of his arms and smashed a Force Palm into the spike armor Pokémon's chest, the resulting release of energy sending the dungeon Pokémon flying.

As the Quilladin fell, the Sandshrew leapt forward, wildly swiping out with its claws at Furno, forcing the chimp Pokémon to move away. As the ground type pursued Furno, the shiny Absol too leapt forward, attempting a Slash on Zero. The Riolu ducked, causing the attack to pass harmlessly over his head. In response, Zero jerked upward, slamming a Force Palm into the dark type's stomach.

The Absol landed several feet away, landing on its side with a pained yelp. Zero, before he could take a moment to catch his breath, the Quilladin, returned, taking a swing at the Riolu with a Needle Arm. Zero tried to move out of the way, but the glowing, cactus-like arm clipped his side. Biting his tongue to keep himself from crying out, Zero send a Low Sweep towards the Quilladin's leg.

The grass-fighting type cried out in pain as Zero's foot slammed into the side of its leg. He stumbled back, keeping its weight off of its injured leg. Unperturbed by this, Zero pressed his advantage, striking the Quilladin with two Force Palms to its chest. The spiky armor Pokémon fell to the ground, electricity sparking around its body, indicating its paralysis.

Looking away from the downed Quilladin, Zero looked towards his partner. The fire type was holding his own fairly well, catching the mouse Pokémon's arm as it attempted to scratch him and threw it into the air, engulfing it in a Flamethrower as it was airborne. On his left, the Banette flew towards him, catching him on his back with a Shadow Claw. Furno cried out, but spun around and struck the Banette with a Thunder Punch.

As the ghost tumbled through the air, Zero used Foresight, his red eyes lighting up, a beam of red light shooting from them. The beam hit the ghost type, its body becoming outlined in red. The Banette looked confused as to what the light was and was unprepared for Zero suddenly slamming into it with a Quick Attack.

Both Pokémon fell to the ground, the Riolu landing atop the Banette. Bringing up its arm, Zero slammed his paw into the ghost type, the Foresight keeping the Banette from passing through his attack. The energy in the emanation Pokémon had stored in his paw was released with a bright flash, the force of the attack smashing the now solid ghost into the ground hard enough to leave an impression.

Zero got up off of the Banette and backed up, bumping into Furno. "You doing okay?"

"More or less," Furno said, sounding slightly out of breath. His eyes then widened. "Look out!"

Zero turned around just in time to see a flurry of glowing green spikes and purple needles flying towards them. The duo could only brace themselves as a combination of a Pin Missile and Poison Sting attack rained down upon them. When the attacks had stopped, Zero and Furno were left standing, but visibly hurting.

"Scratch was I just said. I'm hurting," Furno coughed, wincing in pain.

"You haven't seen the orb, have you?" Zero asked, backing up slightly as the Quilladin and Sandshrew advanced towards them.

"No," Furno grimaced. He made to say more, but a sudden loud roar echoed through the room. The Absol had gotten back to its feet and glared at the duo, but there was something different about it.

Its blue eyes burned with infallible rage. An almost palpable feeling of aggression and hatred seeming to emanate from the shiny Pokémon. The dark type growled, sinking lower to the ground, its entire demeanor screaming bloodlust, more so than before.

"What the heck—" That was all Zero could utter before the Absol leapt forward, moving faster than it had previously. Before he could react, Zero was struck by a Sucker Punch and sent flying into the wall behind.

Zero gasped in pain, the air forced out of his lungs. Furno moved to attack the Absol, but it was too fast. It whipped around, swinging its claws at the fire type. The attack struck hard, hard enough to throw Furno across the room, his body sliding across the floor, stopping only when his head slammed into the wall next to Zero.

"What hit me?" Furno slurred, slightly dazed. He shook his head, freeing himself of the cobwebs, and looked at the dark type in surprise. "What's going on? How is hitting so hard?"

"I don't know," Zero muttered, wincing as he stood up on shaky legs. Seeing the Absol that looked so much like their teammate was unnerving enough but seeing the dungeon Pokémon so soaked with bloodlust was, admittedly, terrifying. _Is this what Weiss meant by Blood Absol's having a different mindset?_

Zero was broken out of his thoughts as the Absol howled. Strong winds began to stir up around it, whipping around its with the ferocity of a tornado, the winds gouging the ground underneath the disaster Pokémon. With another how, the Absol swung its horn, sending a powerful blade of wind at the duo.

The two resistance members' eyes widened in horror as the wind blade screamed towards them. The blade slammed into the ground before them before exploding in a violent gust of razor sharp winds. Zero and Furno yelled in pain as they were flung through the air, their bodies covered in cuts, both of them landing on opposite sides of the room.

With a groan, Zero lifted his head, gritting his teeth as he tried to fight through the pain he was in. The four dungeon Pokémon that mimicked his and Furno's team stalked towards the two of them, the Absol and Banette moving towards him with the other two moving towards Furno. As he struggled to get up, a glimmer of blue caught his eye. There, underneath the upturned couch, was the roll orb. Unfortunately, said couch sat between Zero and the two dungeon Pokémon.

Zero cursed under his breath. He needed to get that orb, regardless of the consequences. With that thought in mind, he fought through the pain and lunged towards the orb just as the two dungeon Pokémon pounced on him.

The Riolu's fingers curled around the orb the same moment he felt razor sharp claws sink into his back. He cried out in pain as the two Pokémon tore through his back but refused to let his grip on the item falter. Doing his best to ignore the pain, he activated the orb.

There was a flash of light, followed by twin thumps on the ground behind him. Half a second later the two Pokémon were pulled off of him. Still reeling from pain, Zero stayed down, screwing his eyes shut as he tried to ignore the burning pain in his back. He heard several loud cries followed by four distinct thumps, then silence.

"…Zero? You okay?"

The young fighting type gave a groan, cracking an eye open to see Orion standing over him in concern. Seeing the Riolu open his eyes, Orion grinned. "Wow, you sure took a beating, huh? Your friends too much to handle?"

Zero just groaned again and closed his eyes, trying to shut everything out. "Oh no you don't," Orion said. Zero felt an arm circle around his waist and hoist him to his feet.

"Owowow," Zero hissed, the pain in his back magnifying at the sudden movement. When Orion let go, Zero wobbled on his feet, nearly falling over.

"Sorry," Orion apologized, catching the younger Pokémon and steadying him.

"No problem," Zero mumbled. He swayed a little but managed to remain standing. His back still burned, but it was much more manageable.

Orion nodded absentmindedly, taking a closer look at his back. He whistled. "Wow, that looks bad."

"It feels bad," Zero commented, feeling a distinct trickle of something running down his spine.

"Nothing a couple sitrus berries won't fix," Orion said cheerfully.

"That will have to wait." The two fighting types turned and saw Stride heading towards them, Furno right on his heels. The Greninja was scowling heavily. "We need to get moving. Did you two find the stairs or did you just need help dealing with these dungeon Pokémon."

Zero frowned at the blatant annoyance in the Greninja, as if it was an inconvenience that he had to help the younger duo. The former human grit his teeth, barely stopping himself from snapping at the ninja Pokémon and answered. "Yeah, they're in my room."

"Good," Stride said curtly, moving towards the room with hardly a glance at the duo. "We need to get going. Your little scuffle no doubt alerted others to your presence. Not to mention those that we were fighting no doubt have our scent."

As he said that, Zero noticed that Stride was indeed covered in a myriad of injuries. Orion as well. They had to have encountered enemies much stronger than the false Team Dawn Breaker. Speaking of whom.

Zero physically flinched at the sight of the dungeon Pokémon lying limp on the ground. He knew that they weren't really his team, but the sight still caused his heart to clench. Glancing at Furno, Zero saw that he wasn't the only one disturbed by the scene.

Meanwhile, Orion had grabbed Stride's arm before he could leave the common area. "Stride, it wouldn't hurt to give them a few seconds just to eat a berry. We don't know what we'll end up facing on the next floor."

"No, we don't have time!" Stride snapped, trying to pull his arm out of the aura Pokémon's grip. "Every second we waste, is another that the dungeon Pokémon get closer to our location."

"You and I both know that there weren't any Pokémon on this floor, just Team Dawn Breaker," Orion growled, refusing to let go of the water-dark type.

"And the sounds of battle didn't attract those from the lower levels and the stairways?" Stride shot back. "We need to keep moving!"

As the two argued, Furno came to Zero's side, grabbing the fighting type's arm and put it over his shoulder, allowing Zero to lean on him. Zero gave his friend a thankful look before turning back to the quarrelling duo with a frown. The two Pokémon glared at the other, neither seeming like they would back down. Just as it looked like the duo would actually throw punches, a low cracking sound cut through the tension.

Both Pokémon froze, their aggression dying instantly. The cracking sound happened again, this one much louder than the previous one. In unison, both Stride and Orion's eyes widened in realization.

"Shit," Orion cursed before the floor underneath lit up and exploded in a burst of rubble and light, smoke and dust rushing out in all directions, forcing Zero and Furno to close their eyes. The duo tentatively opened their eyes and both Orion and Stride were gone.

"Stride! Orion!" Zero and Furno shouted, moving as quickly as they could towards the now large hole in the floor.

Looking down, to their horror, Stride and Orion were surrounded by several Pokémon, some of whom they recognized. Orion glanced up at the duo, still keeping a watchful eye on those around him. "GO!" he shouted. "We'll catch up with you!"

"But Orion!" Furno eyes glimmered with worry, a sentiment Zero matched. Neither wanted to leave the elders. Unfortunately, they didn't have a choice as the remnants of the door was suddenly burst open. More Pokémon were upon them.

"GO!" Orion repeated, forcing back a Machamp.

With no other choice, Zero and Furno moved as quickly as they could to the stairs, abandoning Orion and Stride to the unforgiving dungeon Pokémon.


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29**

The Secrets of the Temple

When color bled into the darkness, both Zero and Furno knew that things were different. Almost immediately, they noticed that the oppressive air that was custom within all mystery dungeons had vanished, replaced by a steady calm. The room around them appeared to be just that, a room. They weren't in any sort of cave, forest, or even a beach, they were in a single room with four walls and a window. Two bookcases leaned against the walls adjacent to the window.

"What? Where?" Furno was at a loss of words. "Is this still the dungeon?"

"I…I don't know," Zero admitted. "I don't remember any of this, do you?"

"No."

"Then I guess that's our answer," Zero said, glancing around. The room, while very large, was rather bland in appearance, with only a few bookcases, a large desk, and the stairs that they had just come from. "I guess this is the end of the dungeon."

"But we were only in the upper spiral for one floor!" Furno exclaimed.

"Yeah, well, I'm not really complaining," Zero commented. He made to walk around but stopped as pain stabbed through him. A strained cry left his mouth and he almost fell over.

"Zero!" Furno exclaimed, gently helping the Riolu to the nearby wall, allowing him to rest against it. He tehn grabbed their remaining four sitrus berries and handed Zero two. "Here."

The Riolu gratefully took the two berries and all but scarfed the, down, sighing in relief as his injuries began to heal. Furno sat next to his friend, eating his own berries at a more sedate pace. The two sat in silence for a few minutes, simply allowing their injuries to heal. Mostly healed, Zero glanced up at the window above them, noting the orangish-red light of the setting sun.

"Time gets all messed up in mystery dungeons, right? How long do you think we've been in here?" he asked, getting to his feet and looking out the window.

"I'm not sure," Furno said, standing next to the Riolu. "We were traveling for about five days, but outside…there's no telling."

The duo was silent for a while, simply looking outside at the forest. Outside, the sun was just beginning to set, creating an array of colors over the horizon and, after everything they had gone through while in the dungeon, it was peaceful.

"…so, what now?" Furno asked after a few more seconds of silence. "Orion said that they would catch up when they could, but…" He glanced around, "this could be a good opportunity to find this temple's secrets. Especially now that we aren't in any danger."

"That's true," Zero said, taking note of the bookcases. Each one was chock full of books, all of which looked incredibly old, most likely having never been touched since the temple became a mystery dungeon. "If there really was some clue about the silver soul within the temple, then it would definitely be located here."

"Then let's get searching!" Furno cheered.

Zero watched as the fire type scamper off towards one of the bookcase. He knew that Furno was just putting on a front to keep Zero from knowing how much their separation from Orion and Stride had affected him, but Zero could see it in his eyes. Furno was scared, not only for them, but for Stride and Orion. While both Pokémon were strong in their own right, they would be going against foes that would be at, or close to, their level, and a lot of them. The duo's chances of getting back to the stairs were…

Zero shook his head. He was worried about Stride and Orion as well, but he couldn't think the worse. He had to think positive and trust that they would make their way back to Zero and Furno.

"There are so many books!" Furno exclaimed, grabbing Zero's attention. The fire type was staring up at the bookcase with a lost look in his eyes. "Where should we start?"

As Furno fretted over the plethora of books, Zero found his attention taken by something that he hadn't noticed before. There, against the wall opposite of the window, were three lines of tiles, each square plastered with letters that were a dead ringer for the strange squiggly words that he had seen when they first came to the temple. In the arrangement they were in, they didn't spell anything other than gibberish.

Zero reached out and tentatively touched one of the tiles, noting that it slid a little on the wall in any direction he chose. "Weird."

"Zero?" Furno questioned, noticing that his friend was staring at the wall.

"I think I found something," Zero said, not taking his eyes from the wall. As Furno came over, Zero pointed to the tiles. "See? These things have letters on them."

"Letters?" Furno questioned, eyes narrowing at the wall. "They just look like squiggles to me."

"Well, I mean, they're a bit crude, but they're still letters. I mean, look." Zero pointed to one of the tiles at the top. "That's a 'R' and that's an 'O'."

"' _R_?'" Furno repeated as if it were a foreign word. "What's that?"

Zero balked at the fire type. "Are you serious? It's a letter in the alphabet!" Zero exclaimed. Furno just stared blankly at the fighting type. "You know, the 'ABC's?'"

Furno shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Come on, it's the same letters we see every time we grab a mission from the job board," Zero said, growing slightly irritated.

"Zero, I hate to break this to you, but those aren't the same letters that are on the mission sheets," Furno said slowly, as if speaking to a child. "I've never seen those kinds of symbols or heard of the letter's you are saying."

All of the irritation Zero had been feeling disappeared instantly as Zero realized that Furno was sincere. He really didn't know what he was talking about. His mind was racing, trying to comprehend the new information. As Zero was having an existential crisis, Furno took that time to walk over to a bookshelf and grabbed one of the books.

"Here," Furno said, showing Zero the book. "The words are different."

Zero took the book and held it up to the wall, comparing the two languages, specifically their letters, side by side. At first glance, both sets of letters looked exactly the same as the other, albeit one was slightly cleaner. However, as Zero continued to focus, as if an illusion was being lifted, the words on the book began to warp and rearrange themselves into a series of symbols and patterns, similar to footprint runes. Despite this change, Zero found that he could still understand them.

"What the heck," Zero mumbled, completely bewildered. "How…? How can I read this?"

"Maybe it's because you used to be human," Furno suggested.

"I guess…" Zero still frowned, slightly annoyed that another mystery had been added to his past.

"But this is a good thing!" Furno exclaimed happily. "You can read this stuff! Come on, what does it say!"

"Nothing," Zero said with a shake of his head. "It's just a bunch of letters that don't make any…" Zero paused, the gears in his mind working furiously. "They're jumbled!"

"What is?"

"These lines!" Zero excitedly gestured to the three lines. "They make up words, but the letters are scrambled!"

"Well, what do they say?" Furno asked.

"I don't know," Zero said, shaking his head. "It could be anything."

"Well it would have to be something pertaining to the temple, right?" Furno said. "How about…memory."

"No, there's no 'M'," Zero responded.

"I don't know what that is, but how about…dreams? Shaman?" Furno suggested.

Zero shook his head, none of the words fitting. There were several 'R's, 'G's, 'I's, and 'E's, along with other letters, but Zero couldn't think of any word that used those letters. No word he knew used those—

A memory of three Pokémon and the orbs they left behind flashed within the Riolu's mind. As if struck by lightning, the answer became apparent. Quickly, the Riolu rearranged the tiles to spell out three words, or rather, three names: _Regirock, Regice, Registeel._

The second Zero slid the last tile into place, the entire room began to rumble and shake. The strange letters on the tiles began to glow with the intensity of a bolt of electricity. The duo stumbled back, shielding their eyes as the light grew to greater heights and filled the room. Several seconds passed before the rumbling stopped, the room returning to its previous calm state. When Zero and Furno opened their eyes, they saw that the wall that had held the tiles was now gone, revealing a spiral staircase that led to a higher floor.

"You did it!" Furno cheered, bouncing in excitement. "Come on! Let's go!"

"Wait, Furno!" Zero's shout came too late as Furno had already rushed up the stairs. Zero sighed heavily before following his friend, leaving the room and their pack behind.

-Resistance-

"Whoa," Furno gaped when he reached the top of the stair well and stepped into the room. The room wasn't so much of a room as it was an enormous cavern, complete with a splattering of stalagmites and stalactites. Lined along the walls were several stone torches like the ones that they had back at the Latios Division.

"Furno, wait up!" Zero called, coming up the stairs behind the Chimchar. He made to say something else, but the words died when he saw the room. "Whoa."

"I know, right?" Furno said. He looked up at the ceiling and saw that it was slightly spiraled. "We must be at the very top of the temple."

"Furno, look at this," Zero said, urgently grabbing Furno's arm. The fire type turned to see what had gotten Zero so worked up, only for his jaw to hit the ground yet again.

The walls, unlike the floor, appeared to be tiled. It was almost unnoticeable, as the tiles were the same color as the rest of the building, but that wasn't what grabbed the duo's attention. What drew them was the giant, tile-style depictions of the three regis that were emblazoned on the wall. A raised dais situated in front of it with an altar resting on top.

"It's the regis," Furno said.

"Just like from outside," Zero muttered.

"Huh?" Furno asked, not understanding what Zero was talking about.

"Outside, near the slots where I put the orbs, there were three drawings like this of the other regis," Zero explained, taking a step closer to the drawing.

"There were pictures outside? Why didn't you mention this sooner?" Furno asked.

"I was a little preoccupied by the dungeon we got trapped in," Zero commented.

"Fair enough," Furno admitted. "I guess this means that the regis are tied into this place. Though that was rather obvious considering that those orbs we got from them opened the temple."

"Speaking of which…" Zero, now standing directly over the altar, saw that there were three very familiar orbs inserted within. "The orbs are here."

"What?" Furno dashed across the room, coming to a stop next to the Riolu. His eyes widened when he saw the three orbs. "How is that possible, we used them to get in this place."

"Who knows," Zero shrugged. Tentatively, he reached out a paw to touch one of the orbs when all three suddenly pulsed. "Huh?"

" **So, you have come,** " a seemingly source less voice boomed, startling the duo.

"GAH!" Furno yelped in surprise, nearly falling off of the dais had it not been for Zero grabbing him.

"Who's there?!" Zero demanded, looking around for the source of the voice.

"… **I am the guardian of this temple and its secrets,** " the voice said after a few seconds of silence. " **It has been nearly a millennium since anyone has entered these halls. So long that the ravages of this world were able to take hold, turning this once sacred structure into a twisted nightmare of memories. It was for this reason that I sealed this place, sending the three keys across the continent under the protection of my guardians.** "

"Your guardian? You mean the regis?" Furno asked.

" **That is correct. It was my hope to spare others from being forced to relive memories that have been twisted into horrible reflections of what they once were. The ability to hide this temple's secrets was just a bonus.** " The voice paused. " **Now, that begs the question, why and how did you seek out my guardians.** "

Zero and Furno glanced at one another, unsure of how to answer. After several seconds of silent communication, Furno spoke up. "We…didn't exactly _try_ to find the guardians."

"In all honesty, we just happened upon the," Zero explained.

"Well, except for Registeel, we got teleported to them-OW!" Furno rubbed his side where Zero had elbowed him.

"The point is," Zero stressed, glaring slightly at Furno, "we didn't mean to find the regis, or take the keys. It just…happened."

" **Yet you saw fit to use these keys to enter the temple and come to this room** ," the voice said, clearly not believing the duo.

"Well, the Pokémon we're with were looking for a way into this place. We just happened to…run into them," Furno tried.

" **Not only that,** " the voice continued as if it hadn't heard Furno, " **but you solved a puzzle that should have been impossible to decipher unless you were trained in reading ancient runes. After all these coincidences, you expect me to believe that you did not have the intention to find this place? I find that** _ **very**_ **hard to believe.** "

"But it's the truth!" Furno exclaimed. "Sure, the ones we are with wanted to find something here, but we didn't actively seek out the regis!"

"And we haven't been trained in reading runes," Zero added. "I just…knew it."

" **You just happened to** _ **know**_ **the language of the Unknown, the language used by humans?** " the voice questioned, the scoff of disbelief clear in its voice. " **If you are going to attempt and lie, at the very least come up with a more convincing one.** "

Zero's heart felt like it had stopped at the mention of humans. Next to him, Zero could feel Furno's gaze on him, the fire type's surprise clear as day. Zero swallowed thickly, forcing his mouth to work. "That language…is the language of humans?" Zero asked.

" **Of course,** " the voice answered. " **After all, the many of shamans that cared for this temple were humans, some of the last of their kind. It was them who sealed this place off, assigning myself and my guardians to protect the temple and its secrets.** "

Zero felt as if the world had been pulled out from under him. Humans had made the temple, his people. _They_ were the ones to seal this place from the world. The former human moistened his surprisingly dried lips. "How…what happened to them?" Zero managed to choke out, his heart running a mile a minute.

The voice paused and Zero had the distinct feeling of being regarded by a curious eye. After what seemed like an eternity, the voice spoke. " **…The same thing that happened to all humans. They were eradicated.** "

Zero felt his stomach drop, his legs shaking as the fighting type's strength seemed to be siphoned from him. He had known that humans had been extinct since he first met Furno, but hearing it then made it feel more real. He really was alone in the world. The very last of his kind.

" **Why do you hold such an interest in the humans' fate?** " the voice questioned.

"Please, sir," Furno said, stepping up to speak in place of Zero. "My friend, Zero, or Atlas, he…" Furno glanced at his friend. "He used to be a human."

" **?!** " There was no verbal response, but both Zero and Furno could feel the voice recoil in shock. " **Human? He used to be** _ **human**_ **?!** " the voice erupted, its intensity causing both resistance members to jump back in surprise. " **How is this possible?!** "

"We don't know!" Furno shouted as if pleading for the voice to understand. "I found him in Shrouded Forest almost a year ago. When he woke up, he had no memory aside from the fact that he used to be human."

There was silence for several seconds, the voice seemingly processing what Furno had just said. Once more, Zero felt the feeling of someone watching him, looking _through_ him to see if their claims were true or not. Several seconds passed before the feeling passed.

" **Such a claim would normally be seen as preposterous…However!** " the voice suddenly said as Furno opened his mouth to argue. " **I have seen many things in my life. Things that could, and still cannot, be explained. Having said that, I will choose to trust your words and believe that your friend here is, indeed, a human, albeit former.** "

Furno grinned, thankful that the voice believed him. Next to him, Zero still had a conflicted expression, the reaffirmed knowledge that his people were gone weighing heavily on his mind.

" **However, this does not answer the question as to why you are here,** " the voice added.

"Like we said, we came here with others," Furno explained. "They came here because…" Furno hesitated, not sure if he should answer.

" **Well?** " the voice demanded.

"They heard that something related to the silver soul was here," Furno said tentatively.

" **I see,** " the voice said, their tone even but tense. " **Under normal circumstances, I would be inclined to inject you and your compatriots from this tower and seal it once more, but, seeing as there is a human amongst you, I feel as if it is their right to obtain both the knowledge and the means for locating the silver soul.** "

That immediately grabbed Zero's attention. The voice had said that it was his right at a human to receive the information of the silver soul, but what did that mean? Why was it that a human was privy to the information while others weren't? Furno, meanwhile, was oblivious to the Riolu's thoughts. He, instead, was through the roof that they would be getting information on the silver soul, the very thing that they had risked their lives to obtain. He was about to thank the voice, when he was cut off.

" **That being said, I cannot give what I have to just anyone,** " the voice said. " **You two may have defeated my guardians and taken the orbs, but I believe a second test is in order.** "

At this, a palpable tension filled the room. A heavy weight seemed to press down upon Team Dawn Breaker as the voice suddenly sounded more threatening. Furno gulped, not liking where the conversation was going. "Wh-What kind of test?" he asked.

" **I wish to see the strength you two possess. I want you to prove to me that you can protect these secrets better than I.** "

The orbs within the altar began to flash brightly, pulsing with an unknown power. Startled, both Zero and Furno took several steps back, moving down off of the dais and away from the orbs. The orbs continued to shine, each burst flashing faster and faster, the light they were giving off intensifying. Suddenly, the orbs exploded with light so intense that it encompassed the entire room. A second later, a shockwave burst outward, knocking the duo across the room.

Groaning, the duo made it back to their feet, only slightly disoriented. Upon regaining their bearings, the saw that, not only was the light gone, but they were no longer alone. Before them was a sight that they hadn't seen since they first joined the resistance.

"No way," Furno all but whispered, fear coloring his voice as he stared up at the familiar figure.

"I guess we should have figured that we'd have to face this guy after fighting the other regis," Zero said through gritted teeth. "Though, I had hoped that we wouldn't have to."

The duo's apparent foe stepped off of the dais, its large foot cracking the stone. An unseen wind seemed to blow through the room, ruffling the bushes on the Pokémon's shoulders. On its face, the cross-like pattern of dots on its 'face' flashed in a random pattern as the large, normal-type titan released an earth-shaking, mechanical screech.

The battle for the temple's secrets was on.


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30**

Battle for Secrets

For almost a full minute, Zero and Furno were too stunned to move. For the second time in their lives, they found themselves facing a Regigigas, but the first was a fake. Monty, while intimidating in his Regigigas form, didn't _feel_ oppressive. Thinking back to it, Zero noted that the transformed Ditto had an air of mischief and kindness about them, completely unlike the behemoth staring down at the duo.

Without even using his sensing ability, Zero could feel the oppressive aura that emanated at an almost palpable level. It didn't necessarily feel hateful or negative in anyway, but it pressed down on them like an almost physical weight. The only time either Zero or Furno had encountered such a palpable aura was when they had encountered Aster, but even that was bloodlust, not pure power like the Regigigas before them was exuding.

And the duo would have to fight against it.

The giant normal type took a step forward, the ensuing quake snapping the duo out of their thoughts. They both took an involuntary step back, fear coursing through them. They didn't need to fight to know how outclassed they were. They were in a fight that they couldn't win.

"We need to go. Now," Zero said, glancing at Furno.

"R-Right," Furno agreed before he and Zero turned and bolted towards the stairs at the other side of the room. Unfortunately, in doing this, they made a crucial mistake. They turned their back on Regigigas.

With more speed than a Pokémon of its size should have been capable of, the colossal Pokémon dashed forward. Before either Zero or Furno had made it halfway to the legendary was suddenly between them. The giant brought its arm up before swinging down at the ground with a Brick Break.

The fighting type energy practically tore through the stone, sending a massive shockwave out in all direction. Unable to dodge, both Zero and Furno were swept up in the blast and thrown towards opposite sides of the room.

Zero slammed into the wall, cracking his head against the stone. Dazed and groggy, Zero blearily opened his eyes, the room spinning slightly. As he regained focus, and the dust that had blanketed the room settled, Zero saw the Regigigas. Its body was still in the same position it had been in when it struck, with its knees bent and its right arm extended to…

Zero blanched when he saw the massive crater that surrounded the legendary's forearm and fist. If that attack had hit, both Zero and Furno would have been crushed. Seeing the damage just solidified Zero's desire to get him and Furno away from that monster…

"Zero! Move!" Furno's sudden shout, alerted Zero to the Regigigas. The legendary had finally stopped its impersonation of a statue and had once more stood to its full height and turned to face the downed Riolu. Cursing his inattentiveness, Zero was just able to avoid the Regigigas as the legendary suddenly exploded forward with a vicious headbutt, blue psychic energy coating the top of its head.

The Zen Headbutt, like the colossal Pokémon's previous attack, exploded with a massive burst of energy. The once pristine tile wall, cracked and caved, causing a good portion to crumble and fall, the debris bouncing harmlessly against the Regigigas' hide.

Coming to a stop, on instinct, Zero kicked the ground and rushed towards the legendary, striking the giant's leg with a Force Palm. The legendary didn't even attempt to dodge, allowing the Riolu's attack to explode against its leg. However, as smoke curled off of the Pokémon's leg, the Regigigas didn't so much as flinch from the attack. It just remained the same, unmoving with its head buried in the wall.

Zero stepped back, his jaw open. The legendary had taken his strongest attack without so much as a wince. It was as if it hadn't even felt it. The emanation Pokémon's shock quickly turned to horror as the colossal Pokémon began to move again, pulling its head out of the wall and turning to face Zero once more.

Snapping out of his stupor, Zero leapt backwards just as the legendary lunged forward. A bright fiery aura surrounded the Regigigas' arms as it reached forward, almost as if it were trying to push Zero. The attack just barely missed the Riolu and smashed against the ground, however, the sudden burst of energy that seemed to pour from the normal type's arms and into the floor, got him.

The energy sank into the ground and, not a second later, the ground around both Pokémon pulsed with orange light and cracked before exploding with a startling amount of force. Debris of various size flew in all direction, several of which slammed into Zero. The former human cried out in pain, both the stone and resulting shockwave sending him flying.

Furno, as he saw the Regigigas attack, had run forward. He jumped and was just able to catch his friend before he slammed into the unforgiving ground. Wincing slightly as both his and Zero's weight fell upon his legs, Furno's knees buckled and he fell to the ground, Zero spilling from his hands.

"Oof. Sorry, Furno," Zero groaned, struggling to his feet.

"No problem," Furno wheezed. He too got to his feet and turned his attention to the Regigigas, which was, again, seemingly frozen in place. "Why does it keep freezing like that?"

"I think…I think it has to take time to recharge," Zero panted, holding his side where a particularly large chunk of debris had hit him. "It's like…all of its attacks are like a Hyper Beam; it need several seconds to recover. We can use this."

The leader of Team Dawn Breaker turned to Furno. "Do you think you can use Dig and get us out of here?"

"No," Furno said grimly. "I'm not as attuned with ground type energy as a ground type is. I can dig through normal earth, but carved stone is beyond me. The most I could do is burrow a few inches."

"Then we'll have to wait for its next attack," Zero said, noting that the Regigigas was moving again. "After its next attack, run as fast as you can towards the stairs. With luck, it won't follow us."

"Got it," Furno said with a nod. As he did, the legendary gave a mechanical growl as it turned to face the duo.

"Here it comes," Zero warned, his entire body tensing in preparation. He didn't have to wait long as, with a loud screech, the behemoth bounded towards the duo, a virtual blizzard swarming around its fist.

All too quickly, the giant Pokémon was upon the duo. By the skin of their teeth, the young resistance members were able to avoid the attack. Without a target, Regigigas' punch smashed into the wall, creating a small crater in the tile. Not a second later, ice practically erupted from the crater, covering a large section of the wall in ice.

"NOW!" Zero shouted to Furno, making a break for the stairs, the fire type close behind.

Zero could have used Quick Attack to get to the stairs faster, but he was unwilling to leave Furno behind. The seconds ticked away as the duo raced towards the descending staircase, their salvation, all the while the Regigigas was regaining its ability to move. The duo was _feet_ away from escaping when Regigigas fully recovered.

The only warning the duo had was a roar followed a high-pitched _whirring_ sound before a large beam of deep purple energy suddenly appeared between them. Time slowed to a crawl as the beam entered both Pokémon's field of vision. They could only watch in shock and terror as the beam cut between them, missing them by less than an inch, and slammed into the ground. Before either Pokémon could react, their world erupted in light.

-Resistance-

Zero wasn't sure how long he was unconscious, but it mustn't have been that long as, when he opened his eyes, he was met with smoke. His head throbbed dully and his ears rang. Disoriented, Zero pushed himself into a kneeling position, nearly falling over as everything seemed to spin for him.

"Furno? Where are you?" Zero called, slurring his words slightly. Zero thought he heard something to his left, but it was muffled by the ringing. Still dazed, the former human shakily got to his feet and stumbled in the direction the sounds came from.

The smoke was slowly dispersing as Zero stumbled along, with it, the ringing in his ears began to subside. A few feet away, Zero could just make out what looked like a small flame hidden within the smoke. Quickly, or as quickly as he could in his current state, Zero moved towards the flame and found Furno still laying on his side.

"Furno." The Chimchar turned his head, his eyes slightly glazed. A nasty gash sitting prominently across his forehead.

"Zero?" The former human could hear the slur in the fire type's voice. The fighting type quickly bent down and helped his friend to his feet, keeping a paw on him to keep him stable. "What happened? Where are the stairs?"

Unsure himself, Zero looked around at the slowly revealing room. To his horror, directly in front of the duo, were the stairs. Or rather, what was left of the stairs. The beam of energy appeared to have carved a groove into the stonework before the energy detonated, destroying a large portion of the floor. The once smooth stone was now ragged and cracked, the various stalagmites lay shattered, and, right where the stair case was, was a large pile of rubble.

"No, no, no," Furno mumbled when his eyes fell upon the rubble. "We're trapped."

Several deep tones rang out behind the duo, causing both Pokémon to freeze, a harsh chill running down their spines. Slowly, they turned around, the smoke having lifted just enough for them to see what was there. Regigigas stood in all of its glory several feet away, towering over the duo, its intimidating aura returning with vengeance. The dots on the legendary's face flashed in a random pattern, a series of tones escaping the giant as they did. Neither Zero or Furno knew what it was saying, but the meaning was clear.

"The only way to escape is to defeat me."

"What do we do now?" Furno asked, fear creeping into his voice.

Zero gritted teeth, his mind racing furiously. They had no way of escaping and the being before them was far too powerful for them alone to defeat. Staring up at the legendary, Zero saw that it wasn't frozen like it was whenever it attacked. In fact, Zero saw the Pokémon shifting every once in a while. It was waiting for them to make a move.

"We've got no choice but to fight," Zero ground out.

"You expect us to fight that thing?!" Furno asked incredulously. "Did you not see the damage it was doing?!"

"See it? I _felt_ it," Zero said. "Regardless, we don't have choice. We can't leave until it's dealt with. We have the advantage as it has to recharge after every attack. We'll have to dodge its attacks and strike back swiftly."

Furno gulped nervously but schooled his features into a look of determination. He nodded curtly, his tail flame bursting with renewed life. He wouldn't let Zero down.

Seeing the duo suddenly tense seemed to be the signal the Regigigas was waiting for. It raised both of its arms, a light blue energy coating its forearms to its hands, before bringing them down with a powerful swing. Zero and Furno were able to jump to the sides, avoiding the attack that smashed into the already damaged ground.

Upon landing, both Zero and Furno dashed towards the giant. Zero pooled energy into his paw as he prepared to use a Force Palm and Furno engulfed himself in flames as he used his Flame Wheel. Both resistance members slammed into either of the legendary's legs, but the Regigigas remained unfazed.

With another roar, the Regigigas regained its ability to move and struck with a vengeance. Lifting a massive arm, it swung its arm in a sweeping motion, the glow of its Brick Break encompassing its arm. The attack tore through the stone floor like a jagged knife through paper, racing towards Zero and Furno, who were just barely able to dodge.

Furno quickly circled the colossal Pokémon, released a large gout of flames at its exposed back. The Flamethrower impacted against the Pokémon's upper back and shoulders and, while it left a decent size scorch mark and caused the bush-like protrusions on the legendary's shoulders to smolder, the Regigigas didn't even cry out. It instead spun around to face the chimp Pokémon, the black dots on its face flashing.

The normal type raised an arm, an orb of deep purple energy immediately begging to coalesce within its palm. Recognizing the attack as a Hyper Beam, Furno immediately bolted, not wanting to be caught up in such a powerful attack. Following the fire type with its arm, the Regigigas prepared to fire its attack when Zero leapt up and slammed into its arm with a combination of Quick Attack and Force Palm.

The combined attacks were enough to push the Regigigas' to the side, causing its Hyper Beam to miss Furno by several feet. However, due to the sheer power of the attack, the ensuing explosion still caught the fire type and sent him crashing to the ground several yards away. Trusting that his friend was alright, Zero landed on the ground and jumped at the legendary's leg, kicking it with a Low Sweep. A jolt of pain shot through Zero's leg, as if he had just kicked a metal beam and, once more, the legendary did not appeared affected. Before Zero could move away, the Regigigas suddenly lashed out with its leg, kicking Zero hard enough to jettison him into the air.

Zero felt as if his lungs being crushed like an aluminum can, all the air in his body being squeezed out of him. Slightly stunned, Zero's vision constantly spun as he was sent hurtling through the air, nearly hitting the ceiling at his apex. As he fell, Zero regained enough movement and sense to be able to twist his body enough so that he wasn't just tumbling through the air. Maneuvering himself so that he could see the legendary, Zero summoned a torrent of wind and launched at Vacuum Wave at the statue-like Pokémon as he hit the ground.

Zero landed harshly, rolling in order to mitigate some of the damage from his fall. He hissed in pain as a sharp pull came from his ankle, causing the Riolu to fall to one knee. He looked up just in time to see the blade impact against the Regigigas, but, instead of doing damage, it shattered as if it was made of glass, doing no damage to the Regi.

The much larger Pokémon gave a loud shriek, whether it was one of anger or triumph, Zero wasn't sure. It lifted both of its arms into the air, an orangish energy coating its arms. With a final cry, the Regigigas swung its arms down and slammed both of its hands against the ground. The energy leaked off of its arms and into the ground, sinking into the stone like water, glowing beneath the cracks. All at once, the energy seemed to detonate, sending a literal wave of stone towards the Riolu.

Gobsmacked, Zero tried move out of the way of the encroaching wall of debris, but his ankle flared with pain, causing him to fall over. Unable to move, Zero was helpless as the earthen tidal wave came upon him. Just before Zero was hit, Furno leapt into the fray, unleashing a powerful Flamethrower at the debris. His attack exploded against the wave, causing the majority of the stone to be destroyed, leaving only dust and minor debris to hit the duo.

"You okay?" Furno asked, coughing slightly as dust and smoke entered his mouth.

"Yeah, thanks" Zero said shakily. He pushed himself to his feet, taking care to not put too much weight on his injured foot. Zero returned his attention to their current foe only to blanch as he saw it charging another Hyper Beam. Before Zero could shout a warning, Furno immediately grabbed him and pulled him to the side as the attack screamed towards them.

The duo slid across the ground, the explosion of the powerful normal type attack knocking them off their feet. Grunting from their landing, Furno helped Zero to his feet. "This isn't working," he said. "It keeps shaking off our attacks."

"Then we need to up the ante," Zero said. "Do you think you can keep it in one place for a few seconds?"

"I think so," Furno said, sounding uncertain but determined all the same. Taking a deep breath, Furno ran forward and released a large breath of flame at the Regigigas. Unlike his Flamethrower, the attack Furno released seemed to shift and slither through the air like a snake before wrapping around the giant's legs and hands, pinning its limbs to its body.

The giant looked uncomfortable, visibly squirming within its binds, but it didn't appear to be in pain. Furno turned back towards Zero and said, "That won't hold him for long."

Zero nodded and began to concentrate, closing his eyes and blocking out everything. In his mind's eye he remembered the Regigigas' previous attack; the charging of energy, the explosive burst of energy, the destructive power of the attack. The teardrop protrusions on either side of his head lifted into his air and a pale beige aura erupted around him. His eyes snapped open as he thrust his arms out, purple energy pooling within his palms. With a shout, he unleashed a Hyper Beam at the restrained legendary.

The beam screeched through the air, appearing significantly smaller than those of the Regi's, but Furno could feel the power emanating from the attack. The purple beam rammed into the legendary, erupting in a burst of bright energy. Smoke ensued, blanketing the upper torso of the much larger Pokémon.

The legendary stumbled back from the impact. It didn't fall, but it had been affected by the attack. Before either Zero or Furno could celebrate, a cacophonous screech came from the Regigigas, the force of which managed to dispel the smoke that had been covering it. Once more, it lifted its hands, the bright orange energy of its Earth Power coursing through them, and slammed them against the ground. For the second time, a wave of dirt and stone, much larger than the previous, rushed towards the duo. Caught off guard, both Zero and Furno were hit by the wave, debris slamming into them with tremendous force.

Both Pokémon cried out in pain, the shockwave of the attack throwing across the ground, various bits of stone digging into their bodies. Dazed and hurt, both Zero and Furno could hardly move from their prone positions on the ground. The Regigigas, which had regained its movement as the duo was struggling to get up, slowly stomped over to the duo until it was towering over them.

Zero and Furno watched helplessly as the colossal Pokémon raised both its arms, grasping its hands together as it channeled fighting type energy through its arms. Furno's eyes widened in terror, Zero glared in defiance and grit his teeth, both of them were afraid. They both closed their eyes as the legendary swung its arms down, bracing for the attack…

…but it never came.

A loud _boom_ echoed through the large chamber, halting the Regigigas' attack and causing Zero and Furno to open their eyes. Behind the behemoth of a Pokémon, the rubble that had been blocking the stairs suddenly burst outwards, a blue blur streaking out. The blur shot past the Regi, apparently doing damage to the legendary's leg as it suddenly collapsed onto one knee, scooped up both Zero and Furno, and moved to the opposite wall, several yards away from the legendary.

Zero and Furno were dropped unceremoniously on the ground, their vision slightly distorted from moving at such fast speeds. Zero, being the first to recover, lifted his head enough to see their savior. "Stride?!"

The Greninja glanced down at Zero before returning his attention the momentarily stunned Regigigas. "What's the situation?" he asked curtly.

"We…we have to defeat that thing to gain information on the Silver Soul," Zero said after his mind caught up to the current situation.

Stride gained a glint in his eye as Zero mentioned the Silver Soul. "I see…"

Immediately realizing what Stride was thinking, Zero was quick to argue against it. "We can't fight that thing, Stride!" he exclaimed. "We through everything we had against it and it just keeps coming. Even if you join in, it's just too powerful! We need to use this time to escape!"

"Be that as it may, I have no choice," Stride spoke calmly, beginning to walk towards the Regigigas. "I've come to far to give up now. The Silver Soul is the only thing that can bring an end to this war and nothing will keep me from getting it. You two should get out of here while you can."

Zero grit his teeth, stopping himself from shouting in frustration. He knew how important the Silver Soul was to Stride but going up against the behemoth that was Regigigas would be suicide. He opened his mouth to say so, but Furno was faster. "Where's Orion?"

Zero felt his eyes widened as he too noticed the absence of the Lucario. His mind flashed to the conversation with Furno, how he wondered what Stride would sacrifice to obtain the Silver Soul, and the horrible thought that their mentor had left Orion within the dungeon flashed through the Riolu's mind. Stride had paused, coming to a stop a little way away from the Regigigas, which was starting to move. He didn't answer immediately, adding to the fear Zero was feeling, and when he did speak, his voice was cold and short, as if Furno's question was annoying him.

"I left him down below in the study. He was knocked unconscious in the dungeon, so I had to carry him."

Zero, while relieved that his fears were proven false, didn't feel any better about letting Stride fight alone. Now paying more attention to the water-dark type, Zero could see an abundance of bruises and scratches covering Stride's body. There was no way the senior resistance member was at a hundred percent. Once more, Zero tried to speak out against Stride's course of action, but the Greninja moved before he could.

Summoning a blade of dark energy in his webbed hands, Stride leapt at the Regigigas, striking the legendary across the chest with his attack. The attack, while a direct hit, appeared to do very little to the giant. In response, the Regigigas swung a Brick Break at the Greninja, who nimble jumped away, responding with a Water Shuriken.

Zero and Furno watched as Stride engaged the massive Pokémon, using their own 'strike-and-dash' strategy, but they could see that he was much slower than before. The ninja Pokémon's injuries were clearly hampering his movements and fighting against the large Regi wasn't helping. He was slowing. After each attack and temporary retreat, Stride's movements seemed slower and his dodges sloppier. At the rate things were going, it wouldn't be long until the legendary would land a solid hit.

Conflicted, Zero found himself glancing towards the stairs, their escape. The lesson they learned from Mifune weighed heavily in his mind. They could easily escape, grab Orion, and escape the temple. They could even go back to the resistance and inform the tribunal of what they found and have them send stronger teams to obtain the secrets of the temple, but…

The Riolu turned back to the battle, seeing Stride just barely dance around a Brick Break. If they were to leave, they would be leaving Stride to his death. They would be abandoning their mentor, the one that trained and believed in them, the one that brought them to the Latios Division and the resistance. They couldn't just leave him.

Zero looked to his friend, catching his gaze. Neither of them spoke, but a silent understanding passed between the two of them. They both nodded in unison and dashed onto the battlefield.

-Resistance-

Stride slid back several feet, having just barely blocked a solid punch from the Regigigas. He was panting, the little energy he had already running dry. Even so, he glared up at the colossal Pokémon, determined to defeat it and gain the information he needed. Taking a deep breath, he prepared to strike when both Zero and Furno dashed past him, rushing towards the legendary.

The giant normal type roared at the approaching duo, slamming its fist to the ground, sending another wave of earth at them. Both Zero and Furno jumped over the wave, unleashing a combined Vacuum Wave and Flamethrower at the legendary. The two attacks impacted against the Regi's 'face', detonating with enough force to cause the legendary to stumble.

"What are you two still doing here?!" Stride demanded. "I told you two to leave!"

"And leave you to fight this thing alone? No way," Furno said, giving the Greninja a shaky grin.

"We won't leave you to do this alone," Zero added. "We're all members of the resistance and we won't leave you behind."

Stride grit his teeth, frustration flashing in his eyes. "You two need to leave now! You said it yourself, that thing is much to powerful for either of you! If you stay, you'll die!"

"And you'll die if we leave," Zero shot back, turning to glare at their mentor. "At least this way we have a better chance at surviving."

Stride still looked unconvinced, but he relented with a sigh. "Fine, but you two have to do what I say, no questions asked. Got it?"

"So, business as usual?" Furno joked, though his voice was noticeably shaking.

Stride chuckled despite himself, a small smile working its way onto his face. He looked at his two students and felt a spark of pride burn within him. He quickly schooled his emotions and squashed the feeling. He would have time to be proud later. "Aright then," he said. "Furno, keep your distance and hit him from all angles with your Flamethrower."

"Got it," Furno responded with a sharp nod.

"Zero, you and I are going to get up close and personal to Regigigas," Stride continued. "Hit it once and move away as fast as you can. Focus on its legs, keep it off balance."

"Understood," Zero said.

"Good." Stride looked to both members of Team Dawn Breaker then to the now moving Regigigas. "Both of you, keep moving. Never stop, make it hard for it to focus in on you. Now…ATTACK!"

At the Greninja's shout, the trio all lunged forward, attacking as one.

-Resistance-

The next few minutes were a blur for all those involved in the fight. Heeding Stride's plan, Furno constantly dashed around the legendary, unleashing a barrage of flames at the giant. Zero and Stride got in close, doing damage to its legs to keep it off balance. All the while, the trio was constantly on the move, dodging any and all attacks the Regigigas sends their way. They didn't take any direct hits, but the resulting explosions and shockwaves did their fair share of damage. As a result, all three of them, on top of losing stamina, were becoming more and more weary while the Regigigas remained standing, despite appearing haggard.

"It's weakening! Keep up the pressure!" Stride called out, dodging another Brick Break.

Furno nodded at Stride's words and opened his mouth to unleash another Flamethrower, but all that came out were a few embers. The fire type coughed violently, his tail flame sputtering. He was panting in exhaustion, his vision slightly blurry. He had nothing left.

"Furno! MOVE!" Zero's cry came too late as the Regigigas turned to face the exhausted fire type. Raising an arm, the legendary slammed its fist to the ground, unleashing another Earth Power.

Too tired to move, Furno was swept up by the attack and tumbling across the room with a cry of pain. Zero shouted Furno's name, running towards his downed friend when he saw movement at the edge of his periphery. Turning, almost in slow motion, Zero saw the Regigigas' hand racing towards him, its fingers splayed to grab him. The legendary had broken its pattern.

The Riolu's eyes widened in horror as the giant hand grew closer, its fingers already moving to enclose around him. He was then blindsided by something ramming into his back, pushing him to the ground and out of the way of the normal type's grasp. Hitting the ground, Zero quickly rolled over and saw that Stride was trapped in the colossal Pokémon's hand. "Stride!"

The Greninja struggled in the Regigigas' grip, but the legendary was too strong. The fiery orange glow of the Regigigas' Crush Grip then enveloped the arm holding Stride as its grip tightened. Stride screamed in agony as the giant's grip began to tighten, the energy encompassing his arm burning at the water-dark type's body. Zero constantly flung Vacuum Waves at the hand holding Stride, but its grip did not falter.

Across the room, Furno was still down, laying on his belly and pushing himself up on shaky arms. He watched helplessly as the normal type squeezed the life out of Stride while his friend futilely attacked the giant, trying to get it to release its grip. Furno tried to get up and help, but his legs buckled and he fell back to the ground.

"Dammit," he cursed, hating himself for not being strong enough to help his friend. The thoughts that he had buried within him since he made up with Zero resurfaced. The fear of holding Zero back, the feeling of being weak, bubbled up within him. The constant feeling that made him question his own self-worth bit at him like a rabid bug type. Memories of Zero constantly shielding and protecting him played in his mind, adding to his feeling of hopelessness.

He didn't want to be weak anymore. He wanted to be strong.

A new feeling began to build up within in the Chimchar. It started as a spark before steadily growing into a roaring inferno, sending a new wave of energy through his tired body. "I won't be weak," Furno found himself saying, getting to his feet. His tail flame roared with new life, glowing brighter than before, the flames taking on a crimson hue. "I won't be a burden!"

At his shout, his flames exploded, completely enveloping the fire type in a pillar of crimson flames. Furno continued to shout, his voice seemingly becoming deeper with each passing second. Still wrapped within his flames, Furno _leapt_ forward, the flames clinging to the fire type's form.

Alerted by his friend's shout, Zero turned around just in time to see a virtual _missile_ of flames racing past him. The Regigigas too turned towards the source of the shout only to be struck by the burning projectile that was Furno slammed into it. Unprepared by sudden attack, the Regigigas released Stride, causing the Greninja to fall limply to the ground, and stumble back.

Furno kicked off of the giant, flipping through the air, and landed on the ground, his flames dispersing as he did. As the flames fell away, Furno was revealed, but he looked significantly different. He was taller, almost double his previous height. His arms and legs appeared to have bulked up significantly with golden bands wrapping around his arms. Over his eyes were blue markings that resembled a domino mask. An actual tail whipped behind him, the tip burning with crimson flames.

Zero was slack jawed, both from his sudden change in appearance and his power, a power he recognized as Furno's Hikari Flame. "Furno?" he asked tentatively.

The newly minted Monferno glanced at the Riolu, his eyes filled with burning intensity. Before anything could be said, the Regigigas screeched and swung its fist at the fire-fighting type. Furno ducked, causing the attack to smash into the ground. Furno then turned an released a massive gout of fire, much more intense and powerful than anything Zero had ever witnessed from his friend. The flames slammed into the colossal Pokémon, actually causing it to take a step back.

After several seconds on continual flames, Furno cut off his attack and jumped at the legendary with a Flame Wheel. In response, the Regigigas raised its hand, icy cold energy swarming it. Furno smashed into icy hand, immediately causing a cloud of steam to blanket the area. With a robotic screech, the Regigigas thrusted its hand forward, sending Furno back to the ground. Furno landed heavily on his feet and growled up at the legendary, attacking with another Flame Wheel that impacted against the legendary.

Zero saw this and frowned when he saw the Regigigas endured the assault and bat Furno away. Even with Furno's power boost, they would still be hard pressed to beat the giant before them. Even now, Zero could see Furno tiring, his Hikari Flame already faltering and Stride appeared to be unconscious. He needed to end the battle before they were all too tired to continue.

The former human retreated, putting some distance between himself and the Regigigas, trusting Furno to keep the giant busy for several seconds. Once he was a safe distance away, he lifted his right arm and summoned a cyclone of azure winds around himself, but, instead of releasing the attack he held it, pushing more and more energy into his attack. The winds roared viciously, lashing out violently in all direction, hardly under the Riolu's control. Even so, Zero kept pouring his energy into the winds.

"It's not enough," Zero grunted in exertion, lifting his other arm in an attempt to gain more control of the wind. He could feel the drain more than ever. His body felt like it was made of lead. His breaths were coming out in harsh, ragged pants. It was becoming difficult just to keep his arms raised. "I need more power."

Through the winds, Zero could see the Regigigas bat Furno aside, causing the newly evolved Pokémon to crash harshly to the ground. The former human grit his teeth at the sight, rage and desperation filling him. Dark spots began to fill his vision, his consciousness fading in and out. He wouldn't be able to keep pour more of his energy into his Vacuum Wave for much longer, but even so, he didn't stop. He couldn't stop. Furno was counting on him.

Just when Zero was sure he would not only lose control of his attack, but also pass out, he suddenly felt revitalized. The energy that he had lost seemed to come back to him, the violent storm of blue winds surrounding him stabilizing.

The Riolu's surprise over the source of his sudden revitalization was quickly replaced with determination as he poured his newfound energy into his attack. However, instead of creating more winds, the cyclone that had already been surrounded the Riolu began to lift off of the ground and condense towards his paws as if being sucked in. The winds' color shifted from a bright blue to a shining silver as it coalesced into a single orb that floated just centimeters off of the Riolu's paw.

The shining orb bathed the room in silver light as it pulsed with power and continued to grow. Several yards away, Stride roused from his unconscious state in a panic. He frantically looked around, trying to make sense of the situation. His attention was immediately grabbed by the silvery light that was coming from his charge's attack. He gaped as he recognized what it was. "Aura Sphere…" he whispered in awe before he frowned lightly. "But that color…"

Oblivious to the Greninja's thoughts, Zero pushed as much power as he could into his attack, the sphere growing to twice Zero's size. Wincing slightly from the effort of keeping up the attack, he shouted to his friend. "Furno!"

The Monferno turned at the sound of his name and his eyes widened at the sight of the glowing sphere. The fire-fighting type locked eyes with his friend and, even in his current state, Furno understood what he wanted. With a deep inhale, Furno launched a massive wave of crimson flames directly at the silvery sphere, momentarily ignoring the Regigigas and getting swatted across the room for his trouble.

The powerful Flamethrower raced towards Zero's attack, the flames getting trapped within its rotation. Soon, the crimson flames surrounded the orb, creating a coat of flames that flickered with the silver energy that it encompassed. Sweating slightly, both from the heat and exertion, Zero turned his gaze to the Regigigas, his eyes burning with retribution. With a single shout, he ran forward.

The Regigigas turned its attention away from Furno and gazed at Zero. With a roar, its lifted both its arms and fired a swift Hyper Beam at the rapidly approaching fighting type. Undeterred, Zero just kept running towards the giant, not stopping until the Hyper Beam was five feet away. With another shout, Zero swung both his arms forward, throwing the massive orb of fire and energy at the encroaching attack.

The two attacks slammed into each other with a cacophonous _boom_. The two attacks pushed against the other, both struggling for dominance. After several seconds, Zero's attack began to burrow through the Regi's Hyper Beam, digging through the blast of energy like a Drilbur through earth. Helpless, the Regigigas could do nothing as Zero's attack raced towards it, detonation with an explosion that shook the entire temple and filled the room with smoke.

-Resistance-

Zero came to with a gasp followed by a harsh cough as smoke filled his lungs. With a groan, Zero rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself to one knee. Slightly disoriented and confused, he glanced around, noting the heavily damaged ground that surrounded him. The sight of the landscape sparked his memory prompting images of Regigigas, Stride's appearance, Furno's evolution, and Zero's final attack to flash in his mind.

"Furno?" Zero croaked, trying to see through the smoke that was just beginning to lift. "Stride?"

He didn't receive an answer.

Worry began to set in for the Riolu. He began to wonder where everyone was when Furno's voice, albeit slightly deeper, shouted through the smoke.

"ZERO! LOOK OUT!"

At the same time as the fire-fighting type's voice rang out, Zero could just make out a faint whistling noise that was growing louder and louder. Turning towards the whistle, Zero was met with the visage of the Regigigas' fist racing towards him. Zero's eyes widened in horror. The fist was too close and moving too fast. He wouldn't be able to dodge or block the attack. All he could do was close his eyes and brace for the crushing blow.

…

…

…but it never came.

Zero's eyes snapped open, flinching when he saw the legendary's hand less than an inch away from his face. A second later, the arm retracted and the Regigigas pulled itself to its full height, the smoke seemingly dispersing at the movement. The legendary was visibly injured, bruises and burns covering the majority of its body.

" **You have proven yourself to me,** " the voice from before rang out, this time seemingly coming from the Regigigas itself. " **You have shown strength and determination that I have deemed worthy to possess the secrets that reside within this temple.** "

With mighty wave of its hand, the Regigigas release a large gust of wind and dispersed the remaining smoke. With his vision cleared, Zero was able to see Furno rushing towards him, Stride following at a much more sedate pace.

"Zero! Are you okay?!" Furno all but demanded, gripping Zero's shoulder a tad bit tighter than necessary. With Furno being so close, Zero could see that his flames had returned back to its normal reddish-orange color.

"I'm fine," Zero said, withholding a wince at his friend's grip. His eyes widened as, with the danger having passed, his friend's change set in. "You evolved!"

Furno seemed confused at first, glancing at his body in surprise. "Huh? Whoa! I didn't even notice." The playful Pokémon scratched the back of his head in a sheepish manner. "I guess I was so caught up in the battle

As Furno checked over his friend for any life-threatening injuries, Stride was regarding his two charges with a critical eye. He was surprised by Furno's initial transformation, but more so with the sudden explosion of crimson flames. The surprises didn't cease as, just seconds later, Zero had suddenly summoned a _silver_ Aura Sphere. There was clearly a lot more to his two charges than he had originally thought. Before he could think any more on the mystery that seemed to surround the two members of Team Dawn Breaker, the Regigigas spoke again.

" **The item that I am about to bestow upon you is incredibly precious and, should it fall into the wrong hands, the Silver Soul itself will be in danger.** "

"Do you mean to say that the Silver Soul is real? Truly?" Stride questioned, almost desperately.

The legendary regarded the Greninja, or at least it seemed to. " **Yes. The Silver Soul is very real.** "

Stride exhaled loudly, tension practically melting off of his body. After years of being told that he was delusional, that the Silver Soul was nothing more than a myth, he had definite proof.

"What do you mean by the Silver Soul being put in danger?" Zero asked.

" **The Silver Soul is a tool that is meant to destroy a prophesized great evil. Should the wielder be discovered by that evil, it will stop at nothing until both the wielder and the Silver Soul is destroyed,** " Regigigas explained.

"A great evil? Do you mean the emperor?" Furno asked.

" **I know not of this 'emperor', but if you have come here seeking the Silver Soul than whatever evil the shamans saw is upon us all,** " Regigigas said. " **Use what I will provide you with to find the wielder and protect them with your very life for if they fall…all will be lost.** "

With those final words, the colossal Pokémon erupted in blinding light and disappeared, leaving behind a single item: a worn and beaten, small hooded lantern.

"…a lantern?" Furno asked disbelievingly. "All that for a _lantern_?!"

"It may not be all that it appears," Stride said, eyeing the item critically. 'Regigigas left it for a reason, so it must be crucial for detecting the Silver Soul…"

"Seriously?!" Furno stomped over to the lantern and reached for the item. "What use is a stupid—?!" The second Furno's fingers brushed against the lantern's handle, the chamber of the lantern glowed as what appeared to be a bright yellow flame ignited within.

Surprised, Furno yelped, pulling back his hand as if he had been burnt. The light was immediately extinguished when his fingers left the lantern. Both Zero and Stride too shared Furno's shock at the sudden appearance, and disappearance, of the light.

"Furno, are you okay?" Zero asked.

"I'm fine," Furno responded, eyeing the lantern cautiously. "It just startled me."

"What did you do? How did you make it light up?" Stride demanded, marching over to the Monferno.

"Nothing!" Furno said defensively. "I just…touched it…"

"Furno, don't—" Stride tried to say, but Furno had already reached out and touched the lantern. Once more, the inner chamber erupted in a bright yellow light with flickers of orange shifting in and out of focus. Stride crouched down before the lantern, observing it was an awe filled gaze. "Incredible."

"What is it?" Zero asked, stepping closer. "It looks almost like fire."

"But it's not," Stride said almost absentmindedly, frowning in thought. "I have a theory. Furno, let go of it for a second."

The Monferno nodded and released his hold on the lantern, the light disappeared when he did. Stride then reached down and grabbed the handle, lifting the lantern to eye level. The second he did, the chamber lit up again, this time with a deep blue almost purple flame.

"It changed color!" Furno exclaimed.

Stride hummed noncommittally, his gaze firmly on the flickering flames within. Zero stepped up next to him, his gaze equally as intrigued. "What does it mean?" he asked.

"…I think that this lantern shows the color of our souls," Stride answered after some hesitation.

"The color of our souls?" Furno repeated. "How'd you figure?"

"For one thing, Regigigas stated that this item would help us find the Silver Soul and what better way than with a device that literally shows your soul," Stride said. "On top of that, yellow is the color of playfulness and happiness with a hint of cowardice, the orange representing energy and natural curiosity. Sound familiar?"

Furno blushed slightly at the description. "Then what does your color mean?"

"Blue represents stability, intelligent, and confidence," Stride explained, looking over the lantern. "The slight purplish color, most likely, represents wisdom and…pain," the last word was little more than a whisper."

"So, the lantern shows us our souls? That will be a huge help in finding the Silver Soul!" Zero said excitedly.

"No, it won't," Stride growled lightly, all but shoving the item into Furno's hands. "It requires touch, meaning we would _still_ have to find the wielder and have them touch it to _confirm_ that they have the Silver Soul. It does the exact same thing that Phoebe does!"

Stride stomped of, muttering harshly under his breath. As interesting as the discovery was, it was useless in actually locating the Silver Soul.

"We did all of this for nothing," Zero said, shaking his head, sighing in defeat. "All that work and we get nothing to show for it."

"Well, the lantern's kind of cool though," Furno said, trying to be optimistic. "And we'll have another way to detect the Silver Soul than just Phoebe."

"I guess," Zero muttered.

"Here, you try," Furno said eagerly, thrusting the lantern towards the Riolu. "I want to see what color you get."

Zero smiled and indulged his friend, taking the lantern into his paws. Zero had just barely felt the lantern's weight fall into his paws when the chamber became alight with fire. A shocked gasp from both Zero and Furno drew Stride's attention. When the Greninja turned to see what was going on, he too gasped at the sight.

"Zero…how?" Stride was a loss of words.

"I don't know," Zero said, sounding helpless as he stared at the lantern, or more specifically the chamber which currently held a bright silver flame.

 **To Be Continued…**

 **Author's Note:**

Another Act done. I know, kind of obvious that Zero would be the one with the Silver Soul. I probably could have hidden it a little better, but hey, live and learn. Anyway, thank you all for your continued support and Act III will make its debut in late July. See you all next time.


End file.
